Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

From our point of view, one of the main problems with the public services card is that the aim of it and the SAFE 2 registration process is not limited to verification. As I said, it is also to coerce consent to data-sharing. Perhaps the Minister is now denying it, but section 262(6) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act states:

(a) Where a specified body has a transaction with a person, the Minister may share the person's public service identity with the specified body to the extent necessary for authentication by the specified body of the person's public service identity.

(b) A specified body may use a person's public service identity in performing its public functions.

The word "may" is significant. Yes, it permits data-sharing, but it does not require or demand it. Data-sharing is not an inevitable consequence of the verification of a person's identity. Section 247C(1) also makes it clear that the purpose of the verification process is "to satisfy the Minister as to his or her identity". Once the person's identity has been verified and once the Minister is satisfied as to the person's identity, there should not be any legal basis for further processing of the person's data, unless his or her consent has been obtained. Is our interpretation wrong?

See this speech in context