Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think the Senator will be surprised by what I tell her. She suggested that some people in the Department have concerns about the public services card but they do not. There are some people in Ireland who consistently express their concerns with the public services card, but they do not come from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, and the Senator and I both know who they are. We are aware of, and fully support, our SAFE 2 authentication process, the end result of which is the production of a public services card. I do not propose, therefore, to accept the amendment, although I will make some important points about the public services card.

It is not mandatory for anybody to apply for a public services card, which is subject to much attention. It is only the end result of the SAFE 2 registration process, which provides us with a substantial level of surety of a person's identity. All it has done is replace older documents that showed that somebody had an entitlement to a benefit, which might have been the old social welfare services card or a paper travel pass that people used to have for the bus. As was the case with those older documents, it is necessary to produce a public services card as proof of identity in certain types of transactions. It is certainly not mandatory for all transactions but rather in some types of transactions, such as collecting one's welfare payment at the post office in order that it can be guaranteed that I am Regina Doherty when I present to say I am.Where someone is getting on a bus, he or she shows his or her pass to demonstrate an entitlement to access free travel. It is exactly the same as when a person would have shown the bus pass previously with which no one had a problem. The SAFE 2 process was introduced to protect the high value services of this and other Departments. People will understand that the money we are talking about is taxpayers' money. It is not surplus money or a question of random lottery winners and careful consideration of how we spend it is required. With high value services, we must be assured that a person who presents seeking access to a scheme or service that costs a great deal of money is exactly who he or she says. The SAFE 2 process was introduced to ensure we had the highest level of verification for people's identities.

The SAFE standard has a number of levels. SAFE 0 is no assurance of identity. We do not have a clue who a person is. SAFE 1 provides an indication on the balance of probabilities with a minimum authentication level, namely, the allocation of a personal public service number. SAFE 2 provides substantial assurance and is the minimum authentication level to issue a PCS card. SAFE 3 is a beyond-doubt standard and typically involves using things like fingerprints or biometric data, about which we have spoken before. That is not on our books at the moment and it is not in our plans but it is one of the four levels of the SAFE process, of which we are currently at SAFE 2. We are implementing SAFE 2 on a phased basis with our customers and the customers of other public services which require identity verification to a substantial level of assurance. Until recently, many public services were provided to people who had been identified at a SAFE 1 level. For example, the Senator has alluded before to identify documents like passports and driver licences which were issued to people following SAFE 1 registration. Since the introduction of SAFE 2 registration in 2011, more services are moving their verification requirements to this level because it gives greater assurance that those to whom services or moneys are provided are exactly who they say they are.

I cannot speak for other Departments, but my Department's fraud control measures show that we are now capturing people who are providing different identities with the same face in different locations and claiming twice and three times in some cases. This assures us that one person with one identity can only get access to a scheme to which he or she is entitled. I disagree with the Senator again about this. I am not responsible for any other Department. I am not responsible for the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport changing its mind or pulling back until it brings in further legislation. What I guarantee is that the SAFE 2 identity process adopted by my Department is underpinned by legislation and is the safest way for us to ensure that the vulnerable people who need or deserve, on foot of their social insurance contributions, the €20.5 billion we give out every year on behalf of the State are exactly the people they present as being. If they are not we catch them to ensure we do not distribute taxpayers' money to people who are not entitled to it.