Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State indicated it is not appropriate to impose blanket restrictions, yet that is effectively what is being applied in respect of access to social services. Persons seeking to access social welfare payments and other payments will encounter such a blanket restriction and I am concerned that it will be extended. I am concerned that the interaction between sections 6 and 12 will result all of the specified bodies may determine that the only basis on which they will deliver essential services will be on the presentation of the public service identity data set, over which there is a question mark, or a public services card.

I am open and flexible in terms of how my proposal would be phrased or framed. The language used by the Minister of State would be perfect and we could provide that there will not be a blanket restriction or requirement. The decision to roll out the public services card as the only way people can access services is excessive. For example, it has been presented as the only way a person can access the funds required to return to college and a condition for receiving child benefit or obtaining a passport to leave the country. Thankfully, the requirement regarding passports has been changed and I applaud the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, for recognising that the provision had no legal basis. I know that was a surprising move. I also note the acknowledgement that insisting that people have a public services card before acquiring driving licences and taking the driver theory test was excessive.

I will be pleased to withdrawn my amendment and accept a Government amendment which exactly captures the need not to have a blanket restriction and to show flexibility regarding the means of identification. Such flexibility is needed. There are circumstances in which identity can be clearly proved. The Data Protection Commissioner is investigating the unresolved concerns expressed by many people, which may well be resolved as a result of this investigation. These people should not be forced to use a system that is still imperfect and requires improvement. It is the type of flexibility described by the Minister of State that we want to capture and I will be happy to accept other phrasing provided it captures this flexibility. It is important that the Bill does not become the instrument that introduces a blanket provision.

There is a contradiction in wider Government policy because we have repeatedly been told that the public services card is not an identity card.It is not meant to be an identity card. We do not have identity cards in Ireland and so forth. The Bill seems to cement the practice whereby the public services dataset and associated card wil effectively become a national identity card. If that is the route we are taking, so be it, but let us have a debate on it that is honest. I note also that An Garda Síochána is one of the public bodies implicated; there is, therefore, a level of reference.