James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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685. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will examine the difficulties a person (details supplied) is having with obtaining a public services card; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42127/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Public Services Card (PSC) appointments were suspended from the beginning of this year due to Level 5 restrictions. However, some appointments were facilitated for urgent cases where the customer had no alternative means of accessing public services other than by acquiring a PSC.

My Department resumed PSC appointments from Monday 17th May, and an average of 1,000 appointments are now being carried out each day.

It is the case that some offices of the Department are experiencing high levels of demand for appointments. Additional staff are being assigned to increase the capacity in our offices in respect of such appointments, and that capacity will be increased over the coming weeks.

My Department has contacted the person concerned and arranged an appointment for them. They have since been issued a PSC.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.