Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising this very important issue. The PSC was provided for in legislation in 1998, when it was introduced alongside the personal public service, PPS, number to replace the previous Revenue and social insurance number, RSI, and the social services card, SSC. It acts as an identifier for access to a broad range of public services.

The public services card can only be requested or accepted as proof of identity by a body specified in Schedule 5 to the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended, and only where that specified body has a transaction with a person concerned. In other words, the PSC can only be used to verify a person's identity where that person is availing of a public service and the relevant public body is authorised to, and prepared to, accept the PSC as proof of identity. The provision of financial or banking services is not a public service. Banks or other financial institutions or private sector bodies are therefore not specified bodies for the purposes of the PSC. This means it is not possible for a person to offer his or her PSC as proof of identity to a bank, or any other institution such as a credit union, which is offering banking services, nor is it permitted under social welfare legislation for a bank or a credit union to accept a PSC as proof of identity, even if a person volunteers to present his or her PSC for this purpose.

When the Department is made aware of any requests being made by a non-specified body for a person to produce or provide details of their PSC, officials from the Department contact the organisation concerned and advise it of the legislative provisions in place in respect of this matter. Specified bodies are in all cases required to process and store data in accordance with the general data protection regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, as amended. A provision is included in the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill that was published and proceeded through pre-legislative scrutiny in 2017 to allow people to voluntarily present their PSC as proof of identity but only if they choose to do so. It would, under this provision, remain illegal for a body other than a public body specified in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act to ask for or require production of a PSC. This provision, if passed, will increase the utility of the PSC for people who hold one without imposing any obligation on them to make it available other than for use of public services.

The PSC delivers valuable customer service benefits. For example, more than 600,000 free travel journeys are undertaken every week by holders of the PSC. More than 600,000 payments are verified each week using the PSC and approximately 400,000 PSC holders use the MyGovID service to access online public services. Satisfaction levels among users are very high, which one does not often hear about figures in the public domain. Earlier this year, a customer survey on the PSC was published. The survey, which looked at customer satisfaction around the processes and procedures involved in applying for a PSC, was undertaken independently on behalf of the Department by specialists in customer experience consultancy. More than 1,000 PSC holders, of varying age and gender, were interviewed. The results showed that 96% of PSC holders surveyed were either very satisfied or fairly satisfied with the process. Almost nine out of ten, 87%, agree that it is very useful that other Government service providers may be able to use the identity information already provided in obtaining the PSC to avoid the need to provide the same information. Nine out of ten of those surveyed felt that they either had access to the right level of information in respect of the SAFE-PSC process or had access to more than they needed.

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