Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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1060. To ask the Minister for Health his views on whether an e-health card or number should be introduced; and if so, the timeline he would envisage for such work. [14907/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Health's eHealth strategy for Ireland examined the international experience of eHealth including the use of health cards, noting the concerns around privacy, security, trust and additionally, the sensitivity requirement for health smart cards. There are no plans to introduce an ‘e-health card’ at present.

In relation to health numbers, work is progressing within the HSE on the deployment of individual health identifiers (IHI) across the health service, in line with the provisions of the Health Identifiers Act 2014. The IHI is a unique number that will be used to safely identify an individual and their health information when using a health service and will ensure patient safety and privacy and drive improvements in patient care and efficiencies in the health service.