Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware the card is a means of assisting the delivery of public services to people who need them.

The Department is currently engaged in a procurement process for a media campaign to promote the awareness and benefits of the scheme.

The campaign is likely to be delivered by radio, digital and print channels and is expected to begin in the coming months. The primary objectives of the campaign are: to improve understanding of the card; to highlight services that will be available; and to let people know where they can find out more detailed information about the card and MyGovID.

To date, 2.89 million of these cards have been issued. A number of cards have been re-issued or have expired. The cards are in broad use.

Despite the comment and debate on the issue at the end of the summer and into this term, these are cards one of the purposes of which is to assist us where individuals have to keep supplying the same information repeatedly to the State to access different services. For example, the legislation on data sharing and governance, that the Minister, Deputy O'Driscoll, referred to earlier on, will provide another building block in how we can further provide services more effectively and conveniently to citizens. We are making progress in so doing but it is a source of frustration for citizens that we cannot do even more, and that is what this card is about.

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