Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Question 48: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider the introduction of biometric and photographic identification as a measure to tackle the issue of social welfare fraud; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11701/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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My Department has a wide ranging programme to combat social welfare fraud and abuse. The Fraud Initiative 2011-2013 sets out a range of actions to ensure an integrated approach to the prevention, deterrence and detection of social welfare abuse across the Department's services. Among the actions proposed is the roll-out of a new Public Services Card (PSC).

The PSC will be issued following a robust registration process and will incorporate identification features including a photograph and an electronic signature thus making it harder for people to use false identities. It will contain personal information inscribed on the face of the card for visual inspection and also electronically encoded on the card for access by a secure card reader.

A biometric template of the photograph will be created on the Department's own database to enhance the robust registration process and to help detect and/or prevent duplicate registrations through the application of facial image matching software. However, at this point in time, it is not proposed to store any biometric information on the PSC itself.

Biometric information is information about human body characteristics, such as fingerprints, eye retinas/ irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements and it is typically used for authentication purposes. Biometric data can associate a particular individual with a particular set of human characteristics. The selected biometric information can later be obtained from the individual and checked against the stored information, thus confirming that the same individual provided both sets of information. Any such system would need secure registration and identification processes and the ability to read and measure biometric information throughout. The cost of this infrastructure would be dependent on the specific biometric selected as the infrastructure (readers etc.) would need to be widely deployed.

The PSC itself can support the use of biometrics but it is not proposed to deploy it in this way, at this point in time.

I am confident that the new PSC will help to reduce fraud and error which could result from the incorrect identification of claimants. The Cards are being introduced on a phased basis with nearly 6,000 of them issued to date. A multi annual rollout programme which will involve the issuance of significant numbers of cards in 2012 and the following years is currently being finalised.