Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Every day the State delivers important and valuable services and benefits to the people living in the State. It is critically important that we can do so in the knowledge that the person in receipt of such services is who he or she claims to be. It is also important that we minimise the requirement for people to authenticate their identity each time they need to enter into a transaction with a public body.

A key aim of the public services card and the standard authentication framework environment, SAFE, process that underpins it is to deliver on those objectives. The SAFE process is also key to the delivery of secure online services via , enabling people to claim and to safely and securely track their claim for benefits, such as maternity benefit, paternity benefit, jobseeker's benefit and the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. More than 4 million public services cards have been issued. More than 600,000 people use the card to make free travel journeys each week, more than 600,000 use it to collect welfare payments each week and more than 800,000 use it to transact online services with the Department. Detailed research published by the Department in 2019 indicates a high level of satisfaction with the card, with the vast majority of users expressing the view that its use should be extended.

In October 2017, the Data Protection Commission, DPC, commenced an investigation into the SAFE public services card process. The commission sent its final report on that investigation to the Department in August 2019. The report found that while the processing of personal data to authenticate a person's identity and issue a public services card for the purpose of providing services delivered by my Department is lawful, the same is not the case when a person is acquiring a card for use with the services of other specified public bodies.

Having carefully considered the report of the DPC and having consulted the Attorney General's Office, the Department is satisfied that the processing of personal data for the authenticating of identity and the issuing of a public services card is, in fact, lawful in situations where the person is acquiring the card for use with another specified public body. The Department set out its position at the time it published the report of the DPC.

Subsequently, in December 2019, the Department received enforcement proceedings from the DPC in respect of the August 2019 report. Given the strong public support for the public services card, the benefits it offers and the advice received from the Attorney General's office, the Department filed an appeal against the enforcement notice. As the matter is now before the courts, it would be inappropriate to make any further comment at this time.

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