asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on the introduction of a mandatory identification card system; and the plans there are to introduce such a system. [2988/03]
Other Questions. - Identification Cards.
6.
I have no plans for the introduction of a mandatory identification card at this stage.
Would the Minister support a measure prohibiting under 18s entering licensed premises unless accompanied by an adult?
I am of a mind to review the present arrangement concerning proof of identity and proof of age of younger persons using premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquor, as a matter of urgency. I am considering bringing proposals before Government to establish a clear and definite obligation in every case on every person in a certain age category to carry into a public house and to produce for every purchase evidence of identity and age.
However, the Deputy's question was a wider one of a mandatory identification card. I had assumed he was talking about something along the lines of the continental system where people are required to carry a national identity card as a matter of course. Whereas that has attractions, not least to anybody in charge of the security of the State, there is another side to the story. Great democracies, such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Britain and Ireland, which share the common law system, have always regarded the mandatory carrying of an identity card as something which fundamentally alters the relationship of the citizen to the state. It creates a different relationship between the police and the citizen and is something on which we will all have to reflect long and hard before making it mandatory for everyone to carry identification. It would mean the State—
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—would assume a right to require every citizen to explain himself or herself.