Vol. 543 No. 3
147 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the rights of citizens applying to sit a driver theory test for a provisional motorcycle driving licence but who are not prepared to divulge their personal public service number even though willing to furnish identification in the form of a passport or birth certificate. [27235/01]
Under the European Communities (Licensing of Drivers) Regulations, 2001, the theory test certificate issued by the Driver Theory Testing Service must specify the candidates Personal Public Service Number, PPSN. For this reason and to facilitate the proper identification of applicants, the PPSN is required to be provided on application for a driver theory test, subject of course to the protection of privacy, provided for in the Data Protection Act, 1988, and the Social Welfare Act, 1998.
The requirement to provide the PPSN in such cases is in keeping with the integrated social services strategy adopted by the Government in 1996, which recommended the extension of the use of the RSI number across the public service in the interests of improving customer service. The Social Welfare Act, 1998, gave legal effect to this recommendation, renaming the RSI number as the personal public service number while also providing safeguards for the protection of the customer's right to privacy.
To connect public services, a common unique personal identification number is needed. For many years, the revenue and social insurance number was a common identification number for taxation and social welfare purposes. Reach, the agency established by the Irish Government to develop a strategy for the integration of public services and to develop and implement a framework for electronic government, sees use of the PPSN gradually being extended beyond the taxation and welfare domains. It is already in use in the health area and is now being extended to the education and local authority sectors.
