Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to talk about the public services card. The Department of Social Protection has been building a biometric photo and template database of 3.2 million people. There is no legal basis for collecting these data in exchange for services people are legally entitled to. Through a freedom of information request, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, and Digital Rights Ireland have found that the Department of Social Protection has known since 2021 that this database is illegal. This processing of personal and sensitive data obviously affects most of those who access State supports. There are statements on data protection this week but this is an issue which the Department of Social Protection must answer for because this is essentially a mass infringement of privacy by the State.