Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 February 2018
52. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the public services card is mandatory or compulsory; and her views on whether elderly persons and other persons depending on social welfare payments should have their payments terminated for not agreeing to accept the card. [8306/18]
View answerMy question is a follow up to that posed by Deputy Curran. I do not know why the questions were not grouped. I met a lady last week who said she had asked for legal direction as to why she had to go through the process of getting a public services card. She had proof of identity, she was able to produce her passport and her marriage certificate and she did not get her payment. There has to be some clarity regarding this process. People do not understand exactly what it is they are required to do.
It is not mandatory or compulsory for anybody in the State to have a public services card. It is not mandatory or compulsory for one person to have a card.
It has, however, always been necessary for people using high-value or personalised public services, which are now considered to be online public services, to be able to prove their identity. In order to ensure that services are provided to the right person and to support efficient service delivery, a growing number of public service providers, including my Department, require that proof of identity is underpinned by the SAFE 2 identity verification standard. This standard verifies identity to a substantial level of assurance and is the most robust identity verification in Ireland today. The requirement for this level of identity verification is provided for at section 247C of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended, in respect of customers of my Department.
The Department needs to verify the identity of customers to a substantial level of assurance to ensure that they are who they claim to be, to ensure that they are not being impersonated by anybody else, to ensure that they are not claiming services or payment in another identity and to minimise the need for them to prove their identity over and over again when they interact with other parts of government or service providers. This verification also provides the customer with access to an increasing range of online public services without he or she having to physically go and provide paperwork to show his or her proof of identity.
For the most part, the SAFE 2 registration process is very easy and straightforward and simply verifies the identity information the public service already has for a person. It is a different level of identity verification than SAFE 1, the level at which some of the documents referred to by Deputy Joan Collins were administered and issued. At the end of the process, if a person wants a public services card, we will print it and send it in the post. If, however, he or she does not want a card, nobody will make him or her have it.
There is a contradiction here. If a person does not provide the necessary SAFE 2 level identification - not the SAFE 1 level - then that person does not have a public services card. Is the SAFE 2 level saying that a person has to have a public services card? Will the Minister clarify if a person could use his or her passport or driver's licence? I shall give an example. The number of services for which a person must have the public services card is growing. These services include social welfare payments, child benefit, school transport, treatment benefits, driving licence applications, age verification, school grant appeals and online health and Revenue portals. The next phase of development is coming in March. I do not have a public services card and I do not want one. I have my passport, which has always been a valid document for identification purposes to access these services. Is the Minister saying that the next phase, which is SAFE 2 level, will deprive people such as me, or an old age pensioner who does not want the card, access to those services?
I have a habit of making things more confusing than they were in the first place, so I apologise. There is no requirement to have a public services card. It is only a by-product and people are only given cards to prove that they have undergone the SAFE 2 process and passed. If a person does not want a card, nobody will make him or her get it. Nobody can ever ask him or her for the card and there is no legal basis for a person being asked for the card. If a person wants the card, brings it home and puts it in a drawer and it never sees the light of day again, then this is game ball. If a person does not want the card, then we will not print or make a card for that individual. It is, however, underpinned by law that a person has to undergo the SAFE 2 process. SAFE 2 is a more robust method of proving a person's identity than SAFE 1. When the Deputy obtained her passport, she would have been adjudicated under the SAFE 1 process, but we now have a more robust mechanism to ensure that Joan Collins is Joan Collins. This is called SAFE 2. It means that a person comes in with the required documentation and it allows us to take his or her photograph and run it through the system to make sure that nobody else is using the same identity. It is a different and more secure level of verifying a person's identity. When a person is invited to go through the SAFE 2 process, he or she is obliged, under the law, to do so. The letter to come in is sent out and the person will not be cut off after 20 minutes. We will send another letter and another. We will try repeatedly to encourage people. There are many people who get the letters and just put them in the bin. The identity verification is about the process, not the card.
Can I make a suggestion? If Deputy Joan Collins will forfeit her second supplementary question on this matter, I can take her next question with one supplementary question. That is if she so wishes. She has been here all day.
Yes, I will. It follows on from this question.
