John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It clarifies the Department's point of view but it does not provide clarity from our point of view because of the number of people who have the card. The pensioner to whom I referred was not refused. She had her payments withdrawn. While the Minister rightly said this was done to satisfy SAFE 2 rather than a requirement to produce the card, there is not much difference because the information provided under SAFE 2 leads to the creation of the card. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said that there were a number of cases of people who had been refused payment. Subsequently, they may have come back into payment but the purpose of tabling the question was to establish how many have been refused by the Department for failing to meet the SAFE 2 requirement. The Minister said this is done "to satisfy the Minister as to their identity". Is she saying a driver's licence or a valid passport, which is internationally recognised, will not satisfy her and SAFE 2 is the only requirement that will?

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