John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 82: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the details on the public service card with photo ID to be rolled out from 2010; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8957/10]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 120: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the timetable for the completion of the identity card scheme; the cost involved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8673/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 82 and 120 together.

Legislative provisions in relation to the introduction of the Public Service Card have been included in Section 263 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 (as amended by Section 32 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007).

These specify that the Minister for Social and Family Affairs may issue a Public Service Card in the format that he or she deems fit with the person's name, personal public service number, photograph, signature, card issue number and card expiry date to be inscribed on the card. Provision is also included for the person's name, personal public service number, date of birth, sex, all former surnames (if any) of the person's mother, photograph, signature and card expiry date to be electronically encoded on the card. In addition, provision is made for any other information that may be prescribed to be either inscribed or electronically encoded on the card.

There are still a number of outstanding parts of the project that need to be undertaken. Decisions regarding the final design of the card will be taken as part of this process. It will also be necessary to develop a technical infrastructure within the Department to support the management and administration of the cards. Procurement for this development has just commenced. In addition, the managed service provider has significant preparatory work to undertake. For example it will be necessary to develop a secure site for the personalisation of the cards. These processes are expected to take several months to complete and, accordingly, it is not anticipated that cards will begin to issue before the latter half of this year.

The overall time for completion of initial deployment of a Public Services Card is dependent on the rate at which it will be possible to securely register those to whom it will be issued. Current expectations are that this will take about four years from commencement of issue.

The initial estimate for the overall cost of card deployment t o all eligible citizens is around €24m. This will be spread over the complete period of deployment.