Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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25. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will report on the introduction of the new public social services card; the number of cards issued since the new system was introduced; and her plans that all persons in receipt of a social welfare support will receive one. [17279/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The purpose of the Public Services Card (PSC) is to enable individuals to gain access to public services more efficiently and with a minimum of duplication of effort, while at the same time preserving their privacy to the maximum extent possible. The PSC is designed to replace other cards within the public sector such as the free travel pass and the social services card of this Department and to make it easy for providers of public services to verify the identity of customers.

Considerable progress has been made in the roll out of the PSC. Approximately 1.4 million cards, including some 420,000 Free Travel Variants, have now been produced.

Face-to-face registration, which involves the capture of an individual's photograph and signature and the verification of identity data already held by the Department, is taking place countrywide in 94 offices of the Department. Selected low-risk customers, whose identity is regularly authenticated in a face-to-face process, have also been invited to avail of a 'postal' registration process. Registration is required for individual applicants for a Personal Public Service (PPS) Number and people applying for or in receipt of social protection payments or benefits.

The PSC project is a key initiative in the Public Service Reform Plan, with the aim to expand its use to cover a greater range of public services, e.g., later this year, the National Driver Licence Service registration process is being extended to include registration for a PSC. This effort is being overseen by an interdepartmental steering committee.