Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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233. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if a public services card is still a mandatory and or compulsory requirement to apply for a driving licence; if he and the national driver licence service have received any communications from the Department of Social Protection in respect of its use when applying for a driver licence since that Department withdrew its appeal challenging a Data Protection Commission ruling regarding the card. [12271/22]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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An applicant is required to present photographic ID and evidence of PPSN, address and residency entitlement when applying for a driving licence or learner permit. Applications may be made in person at an NDLS office, where the required documents are examined and a face-to-face verification is made.

A public services card (PSC) is not required for an application made in an NDLS office. It may be used to establish identity but it is not mandatory and an applicant has several options for verifying their identity. For online applications, the same information is required but verifying a person’s identity is more difficult. Accordingly, a MyGovID account, which requires a PSC, satisfies this requirement.

Legal proceedings, in which the Department of Social Protection appealed an enforcement notice from the Data Protection Commission on processing of personal data for PSCs, were resolved in 2021. The agreement acknowledged that other public bodies specified in social welfare legislation may use the PSC for verifying the identity of the people they deal with, provided that they also accept other methods of authenticating identity. The Road Safety Authority is a specified body for the use of a PSC under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 (as amended by the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act 2009). 

The agreement also accepted that the Department of Social Protection and other specified bodies can continue to use MyGovID as the sole means of authenticating identity for the purpose of accessing online services, provided that an alternative service provision channel is made available.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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234. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his Department and the national driver licence service share driving licence information with the European Car and Driving Licence Information System; and if his Department and the National Driver Licence Service made a submission on the text of a new law known as Prüm II. [12272/22]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The European system to which the Deputy refers is called EUCARIS, and the National Vehicle and Driver File is indeed connected to this system. 

The EU Prüm Decisions are policy measures covering the sharing of DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration data for the purposes of law enforcement. The legislation governing the sharing of data on vehicle registration comes within my remit. 

EU proposals for further legislation in this area, currently under discussion at EU level, relate to sharing other kinds of information not within the remit of my Department such as facial images, and to the role of Europol, as well as involving some purely technical matters to do with the IT systems used.  These are matters within the remit of my colleague the Minister for Justice, and my Department has no involvement in Prüm II, nor have we made any submissions in relation to such.