Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have always been of the view that the public services card is a good idea. It is a success. It is very popular. We know from surveys of people who have one - I have one - that over 80% of people like it, particularly those who now use it as a free travel pass, elderly people in particular. It is designed to make public services more accessible, for greater efficiency and for removing duplication. It is also designed to reduce fraud, but that was only ever a small part of the project.

In terms of accessing public services more easily, it means that people only have to fill in a form, go to the chemist, get photographs which need to be signed and stamped by a Garda once every seven or eight years.

It has also brought about efficiencies. One does not need a separate travel pass, pension book and social welfare services card because all those things can now be replaced with one card, which is much more efficient. It has been helpful with fraud - not so much detecting fraud but certainly deterring it. We know that the instances of confiscation of false travel passes has gone down dramatically since the public services card travel pass was introduced.

I acknowledge the role of the Labour Party which ran the project for five years, Deputy Burton having introduced the card and Fianna Fáil having introduced legislation before that.

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