Written answers

Thursday, 9 September 2021

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

Public Services Card

Photo of Mark WardMark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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671. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to put applications for the public services card online; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41894/21]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The SAFE registration process, which my Department uses to authenticate a person's identity, is a face to face process which results in the issuing of a Public Services Card (PSC). Currently, it is not possible for someone who does not already have a PSC to acquire one without attending an in-person appointment.

My Department is exploring the delivery of services to augment the current face-to-face identity proofing processes carried out by staff in Intreo and SAFE Centres nationwide by allowing customers satisfactorily establish their identity online .

My Department has published a request for tenders (RFT) for an online document-centric identity proofing service to meet the Department’s SAFE standard. A decision on the development of this service will be made following an examination of responses to this RFT.

My Department has also introduced a new online PSC renewal service which is available on MyWelfare.ie. 

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Photo of Mark WardMark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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672. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if having a public services card is mandatory or compulsory for applying to get social protection payments, State pension payments or a driver licence; the difference between mandatory and compulsory; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41895/21]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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SAFE registration is the process through which my Department authenticates the identity of an individual, in the manner described, and for the purposes set out, in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended. The Public Services Card (PSC) is issued to a person when they have completed this process.

Since its inception in the late 1990s, the PSC has always been intended to be used as physical token of identity to be used in transactions between the citizens and the State, not just between citizens and the Department of Social Protection.

In respect of transactions with the Department of Social Protection, and as provided for in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, a person must authenticate their identity through SAFE registration:

1. before they can be allocated and issued a Personal Public Service Number (PPSN);

2. before they can be issued a PSC;

3. as one of the conditions of their right to a social welfare payment;

4. to continue to receive a social welfare payment below once they have been requested to satisfy the Minister as to their identity.

The requirement that a person be SAFE registered before being issued a PPSN or being awarded a social welfare payment, was temporarily suspended from March 2020, to ensure the health and safety of the Department's customers and staff. 

SAFE registrations have since resumed and those customers concerned will be contacted by the Department and requested to attend for SAFE registration. 

The Social Welfare Consolidation Act also provides that “A person shall produce his or her public services card at the request of a specified body for the purposes of a transaction.”

All specified bodies, including the Department of Social Protection, are therefore entitled to ask a person for their PSC as proof of their identity for the purposes of a transaction; where such a request is made, there is a statutory obligation on the person to produce their PSC when requested.

The matter of when, or for what reason, another specified body, other than the Department of Social Protection, seeks production of a PSC as proof of identity is a matter for those bodies.

My role, as Minister for Social Protection, is to conduct SAFE registration and issue a PSC for the purposes of a transaction.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

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