Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection for an update on any plans to expand the use of a digital ID; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31202/26]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister will be delighted to know that my question is straightforward. It relates to the expansion of the digital ID, or the public services card as it is known. The Minister will be well aware that this card has been mired in controversy. A succession of Ministers have tried to defend how this card is mandatory but somehow not compulsory. There is an element to this that people have to have it but they also do not have to have it. For that reason, I and many others are concerned about its expansion.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for her question. In April 2024, the European Parliament and the Council introduced eIDAS regulation 2. The overall aim of this regulation is to create a predictable and legally binding framework for digital identities that will enable citizens, residents and business to securely access public and private services across member states. The regulation requires each member state to develop and provide at least one European digital identity wallet by the end of 2026. The wallet will enable people to store various identity credentials, such as driving licences, EU health insurance cards and age verifiers, securely on their mobile phone or device and produce them, at their own discretion, to evidence entitlement to services and benefits anywhere in the EU.

A key benefit of the wallet is that the personal data will be held and controlled by the citizen. The citizen will decide whether they want to use the wallet, what credentials they hold in the wallet and where and to whom they provide any credential.

The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport has responsibility for implementing the regulation while the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation has responsibility for the development of the Government digital wallet. The wallet must meet EU technical, security, interoperability and certification requirements.

My Department’s role is to use the existing MyGovID service to verify that the person seeking a wallet and wishing to download identity credentials into the wallet is the person they claim to be. We will also provide the core public service identity data, such as the name and date of birth, but we will not hold or have access to any of the credentials from other public service providers they subsequently download. We will not know what other credentials have been downloaded, nor will we have any access to usage data.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, OGCIO, is currently inviting the public to take part in a consultation and testing phase of a pilot Government digital wallet. Launching a consultation and testing at this stage enables the Government to engage with the public to understand what they would like from the Government digital wallet.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister will well understand why I and others, such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and other groups, are necessarily cautious about this. For example, when the public services card, PSC, was brought in, it was said that it would be mandatory but not compulsory, or vice versa. In the end, the requirement for those over 65 is that they must have one of these cards with a chip in it to access the free travel scheme. There is a creeping sense that people are being asked to hand over their identification and have a level of trust – this is not personal to the Minister - in the Government in the holding of their data. I do not believe that sufficient work has been carried out in order to assuage people. The Data Protection Commissioner has already made a ruling in this regard, although I understand it is under appeal. That ruling was damning of the Government’s capacity to handle people’s data.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy said, the ruling is under appeal. We are appealing it. I also thank the committee for beginning pre-legislative scrutiny of the social welfare Bill yesterday. There are initiatives contained in that Bill for a card holder to use their public service card for identity purposes at their own discretion in exactly the same way they can do with a driving licence or a passport. That is particularly for people looking for ID for bank accounts or credit unions, etc. We are trying to give people the ability to use the card at their own discretion and judgment.

The public service card currently does not display card holders' dates of birth. The proposed changes provide for a card holder to opt in to have their date of birth inscribed on their public service card. If they so wish, they can have it removed at a later point. Since 2012, over 5 million people have completed the SAFE registration process for the public service card. There are approximately 3.5 million users of MyGovID who complete about 60 million transactions per annum. It makes the provision of services a lot easier and quicker for citizens.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister stated that people can put their date of birth on it if they wish and that everything will be absolutely opt-in all the time but that is not true. The moment something like this is brought in, it becomes compulsory. Those aged over 65 have an entitlement to access the free travel scheme but they must have this card to do so. If people do not want to have the card, they are simply locked out of the scheme. When the Minister says that something will be voluntary, such as the public services card, it is not the case. The only thing people are volunteering to do is not have their lawful entitlement to the free travel scheme if they are over 65. Does the Minister understand why people are naturally suspicious about this? In the Minster’s answers, he talked a lot about it being voluntary and people opting in. In truth, however, the PSC is no longer voluntary, particularly for those over 65. People do not have the choice to opt in.

We are doing pre-legislative scrutiny on the social welfare Bill. It is a fairly big piece of legislation and changes to the PSC are contained within it. I am putting the Minister on notice that those changes will be resisted by me and the Opposition more broadly because there is no trust when it comes to the holding and collection of data.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I look forward to engaging with the committee on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. I emphasise the voluntary nature of this. It is the Department’s policy that this is digital by desire. We understand there are people who do not wish to or are not comfortable using digital services. We will continue to make our services available on an optional basis.

Equally, there is a level engagement with the public services card. There are a total of 3.4 million verified MyGovID accounts. In 2025 alone, we had over 44 million logins. That gives the Deputy a sense of the level of interest and use of it. We will have further questions later about the ongoing online services. I have made it clear within the Department that this should be digital by desire. If someone is not comfortable with it – I am speaking as one such person - those services and options should be fully available.