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

I assure the Senator that there is no intention of anybody moving towards an ID scheme. If there was, it would be a fairly poor one given that one is not obliged to show one's public services card, PSC, card to anyone, so it certainly would not work.

I regret that it appears that I am always fighting with Senator Higgins, because I have huge respect for her, but I cannot allow her to say there are investigations because the Data Protection Commissioner has grave concerns over the PSC. She or her office does not. The last complaint the Senator alluded to was a complaint that was made by somebody that is being investigated. It has not been upheld or a finding made. The definition of what we hold our policy to be has to be and can only be determined by us. There is not an international body or organisation out there that tells us what definitions are. We hold the definitions within our Department and we are perfectly entitled to do that.

Furthermore, the investigation the Data Protection Commissioner is undertaking is not against the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. I cannot actually speak about it because she has asked me not to, but I cannot allow the Senator put on the record of this House that the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has grave concerns with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. It does not. That will be transparent when the Data Protection Commissioner issues her report.

We need to come back and focus. The SAFE authentication process is not some international standard that was robbed from New Zealand or Australia. We are actually world leaders in the authentication process ourselves. I believe that is great. The Senator is absolutely correct in saying that the level of fraud is low and, thankfully, dropping. This is happening because of this very verification process. We are catching people who were claiming two, three or four and multiples of times of that in different locations and because of this verification process, one cannot do that. One can present once, with one's facial image scanned to ensure that the person is the person with the two eyes, the nose, the freckle here or whatever it is that has been determined by that scan, and one cannot then present in a different location and pretend that one is somebody else.That is why we know that the bulk of the €20.5 billion spent by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is going to the people who are either entitled to it or deserve it because they need our help. On that basis, I fundamentally disagree that we should either stop, change, remove or withdraw this. It is a good policy and it is working. I stand behind the Department's support of it and will lend my support for as long as I am here. I disagree with the Senator.