Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 299: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the means by which the public services card will reduce social welfare fraud and waiting periods; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24903/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The introduction of the Public Services Card (PSC) will assist in the identification of customers to providers of public services.

A more secure registration process, leading to issue of a PSC incorporating the customer's photograph and signature, will give significant assurance as to the identity of the cardholder. This means that the issuer of a PSC will get three main benefits:

- It will reduce the number of people who fraudulently claim to be someone else,

- It will be a secure card and will considerably reduce the potential for forgery, and

- It will save some of the time currently spent re-verifying an individual's identity each time a member of the public tries to access a public service.

This last benefit will also be realisable for those other bodies that use the card subsequently - they will not have to re-register a card-holder. Small savings for each interaction with cardholders will represent a considerable overall saving.

The benefits for a cardholder are similar to those for a public body. It will make it more difficult for someone else to claim to be that cardholder, thus playing its part in reducing identity theft. It will also save time and effort for the individual in that they will not have to re-register for every supplier of public services who need to verify identity and it should reduce the amount of time spent establishing identity for each transaction.