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

As I have outlined, the matter is subject to a court case. The Deputy will appreciate that I do not want to pre-empt or in any way prejudice that court case. My understanding is that the matter may be coming for hearing shortly. That is as much information as I can give the Deputy in this regard.

It is important to note that, as the Deputy knows, many people ask their public representatives why they have to keep giving the same information to different Departments time and again. Removing that requirement was the purpose of introducing a public services card. All the information would be contained on one card and it could be used in one's dealings with a number of Departments. As things stand, the public services card can be used for dealings with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and it has proved useful in a number of areas. In the case of the PUP, for example, it was very useful in enabling verification of applications.

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