Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I had failed to notice that amendment No. 141 was grouped with amendment No. 65. The Minister referred to the requirements and the exceptions in that they are not contained in the Bill. The GDPR as European law will be Irish law. They are well enumerated in the GDPR. It outlines biometric data as personal data resulting from specific technical processes relating to the physical, physiological or behavioural characteristics of a natural person which allows or confirms the unique identification of that natural person, such as facial images or dactyloscopic data. The GDPR consent requirements define biometric data as special categories of personal data and prohibit its processing, thereby protecting people from having their data shared with third parties without their consent. The exception to that consent is that processing is prohibited unless necessary for carrying out obligations of the controller or the data subject in the field of employment, social security and social protection.

This is very relevant to the issue of the development of the public services card and the questions about the use of biometric data in that regard. The Government has found itself in difficulty, especially in respect of the Road Safety Authority recently and the requirements that were provided there, as well as the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. We have not had adequate public debate on the use of biometric data or the possibility of the public services card being used as a sort of proxy identity card with biometric data. Whatever arguments are to be made in support of that have not been made honestly or directly. In that context and in the context of governments here and around the world increasingly using biometric data to build profiles of people and the potential for that data to be compromised, I think these are reasonable safeguards to put into the legislation.

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