Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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355. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department utilises facial recognition technology; the safeguards that are in place to prevent abuse of this technology; the costs paid to providers for the operation and maintenance of this technology since it was first utilised by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53330/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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One of my statutory functions as Minister for Social Protection is the authentication of a person's identity in the manner described, and for the purposes set out, in primary legislation. Once a person has authenticated their identity by way of the SAFE registration process, they are issued with a Public Services Card (PSC) which can be used as proof of identity when accessing public services.

The processing of personal data involved in the SAFE registration process is carried out to help ensure that the person whose identity is being authenticated has not already been authenticated under a different identity. The SAFE registration service not only provides assurance to public bodies as to the identity of the person they are dealing with, it also helps to protect that person against identity theft, and helps ensure that their data protection rights are protected.

The processing of personal data includes the creation and processing of biometric data from a photograph of the person concerned, to enable a check to be carried out as to whether the facial image matches an image already held. A similar type of processing is carried out by the Passport Office and other Governmental authorities in many other countries, with responsibilities in the area of identification and authentication.

The processing of biometric data has been an essential component of the SAFE registration process. This processing is carried out by the Department on the Department's secure IT infrastructure. This biometric data is not stored on the PSC, nor is it shared with any other public body.

The amounts paid to providers in respect of the deployment, operation and maintenance of the facial image matching technology since it was introduced are set out in the table below:

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.