Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am most unhappy with the Minister's answer. If he were to read the transcript of the relevant meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts and the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, he would see that no business case was provided for the public services card and the costs of the project or its positives were never evaluated. The estimated cost of the public services card now stands at €60 million. I am sure it is a matter of concern to the Minister, given his responsibility for public expenditure, that €60 million will be spent on a project for which no business case was ever provided, which was introduced on an ad hocbasis and the implications of which were never discussed.

On the issue of legislation, while we have the Social Welfare Act to which the Minister referred, we are waiting for the promised Bill on the storage, collection and, more important, sharing of data. Various answers refer to memorandums of understanding that do not exist.

I ask the Minister to grasp the seriousness of what has taken place, with an identity card being rolled out without any discussion, honesty or acknowledgement of its implications for privacy and the sharing of data, particularly in view of what emerged in the Committee of Public Accounts.

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