Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I realise we have much to get through so I will not speak at length. Given that the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 is referred to in this Bill, it is opened up to this suggested interpretation. Amendment No. 11 is compatible with that Bill. The Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 provides that there may be a requirement for the Minister to be satisfied. Amendment No. 11 complies with this requirement. It simply suggests that there may be other mechanisms by which the Minister may be satisfied.

There is no point in having the social welfare debate here. There are serious concerns around that. We need to be clear, because there is a misapprehension, that contrary to what anybody may have seen on the side of a bus, a significant incidence of identity fraud does not affect public services. There are instances of it. There have been one or two high-profile cases, which have been covered extensively. Error within the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection constituted a large and probably larger proportion of the concerns expressed in the reports. There are also more instances of data breaches. There are some instances, and I can see the Minister of State's officials passing him notes on some. However, the savings on identity fraud come nowhere near recouping the significant cost of the public services card, which I acknowledge is being investigated by other committees in this House.

I will press amendment No. 11 while recognising that amendments Nos. 40 and 41 fall.