Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 386: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his plans to introduce photo identification on cards issued by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31523/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department, together with the Department of Finance, is managing a programme of work to develop a framework within which public service cards can be deployed. The programme of work is known as the standard authentication framework environment, SAFE.

Following approval from Government, an interdepartmental steering group was established in September 2004 to develop the framework. The steering group comprised representatives from 12 Departments and the Reach agency. The term "framework" is being used to emphasise that a single public service card is not necessarily envisaged but rather a standard within which individual initiatives can operate. One of the objectives of SAFE is to facilitate convergence over time of existing cards and other tokens under a single branded scheme. The individual will benefit from a reduction in the number of tokens required and will give them enhanced control of the use of their data. Agencies can benefit from the streamlining of existing schemes and sharing of administrative costs.

The first phase of this work was completed by June of this year and the business principles for the framework were agreed. It was recognised that any framework needed to operate in a defined policy environment and my Department and the Department of Finance are engaged in the necessary technical research to bring forward recommendations on such a policy. This will be accompanied by a parallel stream of work to define a detailed functional architecture to support SAFE. My department intends to develop a public service card in line with its existing responsibilities, for issue in 2007. This will be compatible with the SAFE standards and the emerging policy. The card will include identification features which could include a photograph but this will depend on the policy adopted.