Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 June 2014
113. Deputy Eric Byrne asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason PPS numbers are shown on free travel passes; in view of the personal nature of these numbers, if this practice will be stopped in the future; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25034/14]
View answerThe Department of Social Protection has developed, in conjunction with a number of other Government Departments, a rules based standard for establishing and authenticating an individual’s identity for the purposes of access to public services. This programme of work, which is known as the Standard Authentication Framework Environment or SAFE for short, also provided for the introduction of a Public Services Card (PSC) to enable individuals to gain access to public services more efficiently and with a minimum of duplication of effort, while at the same time preserving their privacy to the maximum extent possible.
The PSC is designed to replace other cards within the public sector such as the free travel pass and the social services card of the Department and to make it easy for providers of public services to verify the identity of customers. The PSC contains advanced security features including the holder’s photograph thus preventing usage by an ineligible person.
The Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) is the individual’s unique reference number for all dealings with Government Departments and public bodies. The PPSN of the cardholder is provided on the PSC to supporting effective and efficient service delivery by Government Departments and agencies.
Last December, the Department began issuing a new Free Travel variant of the PSC and over 180,000 such cards have been produced to date.
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has been extensively consulted on all aspects of the PSC programme, including the inclusion of the PPSN of the face of the card. The Department will continue to work very closely with the ODPC to ensure that the card is used in an appropriate manner and does not give rise to any data protection or identity theft concerns.
