Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. To some degree, the Minister of State is supporting the point that I am making about the success of the card and the satisfaction that people have when they use it. The Minister of State mentioned that there are customer service benefits, that more than 600,000 free travel journeys are undertaken every week with the public services card and more than 600,000 payments are verified. I am seeking to speak for people throughout Irish society who, as may surprise the Acting Chairman, would not have a passport or driver's licence, which are the two other obvious forms of identification. They are in possession of the public services card. We are merely asking that the services could be expanded, especially for anti-money laundering purposes, such that where a person is carrying out a financial transaction where proof of identity is required, especially in a credit union with many older people who use it, the public services card would be deemed to be fit for purpose for proof of identification and to adhere to the money laundering legislation. The Minister of State tells us that there is a high degree of satisfaction with the card and that people are comfortable using it.

It really brings us back to the point of whether the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2017, which has been sitting there for two years, could be expedited in a way that would ensure that a provision could be made that it could be used for anti-money laundering legislation, so that if somebody opens an account in a credit union, the public services card could be deemed to be a valuable or appropriate form of identification. That would probably have the effect of ensuring greater confidence in the card and probably ensuring that it could meet the anti-money laundering requirements.

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