Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 October 2019
40. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of the public services card and the findings of the Data Protection Commissioner on same; if enforcement proceedings have been issued by the Data Protection Commissioner; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43652/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy question to the Minister is more or less self-explanatory. It follows on from our discussion on this matter on the last occasion we had parliamentary questions to the Minister.
The public services card was provided for in legislation in 1998 when it was introduced alongside the personal public service, PPS, number to replace the previous revenue and social insurance number, the old RSI number, and the social service card, the old SSC. It acts as an identifier for access to a broad range of services. Successive Governments since have reaffirmed this policy both in Government decisions and through legislation.
In October 2017, the Data Protection Commission commenced an investigation into the standard authentication framework environment-public services card, SAFE-PSC, process and delivered its final report to the Department on 15 August this year. On 17 September, the Department published the report of the Data Protection Commission together with a summary of our own response to the findings of that report.
On the basis of strong legal advice from the Attorney General's office, I am satisfied that the processing of personal data related to the PSC does, in fact, have a robust legal basis, that the retention of data is lawful and that the information provided to users satisfies the requirements of transparency.
I am advised that the findings in the Data Protection Commission report do not have the force of law until such time as they are formalised in an enforcement notice. To date, the Data Protection Commission has not issued an enforcement notice, although I understand one is being prepared by the Data Protection Commission. On receipt of it, the Department will consider the scope and terms of the enforcement notice and we will respond appropriately at that time.
In the meantime, the Department will continue to conduct the SAFE registration process and issue PSCs. It will also retain the supporting documentation collected as part of the SAFE process. I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
I thank the Minister for her response. Basically the position is that she has not got an enforcement notice as yet but when she gets one she will consider it. Is she saying she has not definitively made up her mind yet to contest or resist this by having recourse to the courts? Is that the position? There is no final definitive decision on that.
Is the Minister aware the Data Protection Commissioner is currently doing a study on the biometric implications of the public services card? Does she have any comment to make on that?
With respect to the Minister's statement, which she has made a number of times, that to comply with the instructions of the Data Protection Commissioner would be unlawful, could she elaborate on that?
The Deputy is correct in saying we have not received an enforcement notice. Therefore it is very difficult to tell the Deputy, with 100% clarity, what we would do until we see that enforcement notice but I can reiterate the legal advice we have, which is numerous, tells us that the legal basis for conducting the safety registration pass, the production of PSC card, the retention of the data and the transparency of that entire process is entirely legitimate with regard to the various pieces of legislation and amended legislation that has been passed by successive Governments over many years. Therefore, if the enforcement notice comes in line with the findings, then I think that legislative basis obviously will still stand. However, as I said, we have not seen an enforcement notice despite it now being some months later but we will look at the scope and the terms of that enforcement notice and react depending on what is in it.
We are very much aware there is a second part to this. The Data Protection Commission chose to put its investigation, which was started some two years ago, into two parts. What we have received is the findings from the first part of its investigation, which is around the PSC and SAFE 2. The second part of its investigation is around biometrics and to date we have not received anything from it with regard to that.
Regarding the unlawfulness of this, we have a legal basis to do exactly what we are doing. That is why we are strong in our commitment to continue doing what we are dong. Where we would not have a legal basis is to change the current law to try to provide a safety registration process in a different way from what the law prescribes. Therefore, we will carry on doing what we are doing until the enforcement notice comes and we react to it.
Is the Minister familiar with the conclusion of the Data Protection Commissioner that in some cases the public services card makes access to a service more difficult, for example, when one must artificially produce the card when identify verification was not required in the past with respect to, say, school transport appeals? Has that practice been discontinued? Would the Minister like to comment on the decision taken by other Departments and other public bodies to abandon insistence on the production of a public services card to get access to their services?
The intention from the inception of this project, for want of a better word, was never to make accessing public services more difficult. It was always to try to make it more efficient and, in the main, I believe it has done that. I would regret if anybody finds it more difficult to access public services by the use of electronically communicating or using the public services card as an identifier.
I am not sure where school transport appeals came into the narrative. A public services card has no place and never has had a place in school transport appeals. It does not form part of that process whatsoever. I believe that just developed over the past number of weeks or months as an example but it has never been used. The production of a public services card is not a requirement for anybody to make an appeal of a school transport decision that has been made. As I have always stated, this is an overarching Government policy to try to make public services easier and more efficient to deliver on behalf of each and every Department but every Minister is responsible for making the decisions on how they deliver those efficient services entirely for their own Department.
