Introduction of public services card highly successful, review says

The introduction of the public services card and online measures to validate the identity of people accessing Government services has proved highly successful in both quantitative and qualitative terms, a new spending review has found.

The review maintained that the “Safe-PSC-MyGovID” public-service identity-management framework – which cost €98 million over a 10-year period to 2019 – had paid for itself within five years.

It said the system now delivered direct annual savings of more than €20 million.

The spending review estimated that the discounted net present value of the investment by the Department of Social Protection in the framework was "significantly positive at +€206 million".

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“If the financial model were broadened to include further efficiency gains to the department and other public service bodies, further control and customer contact savings accruing to the department, and especially the value of time and cost savings for people using public services, the estimated net present value of the initiative might be expected to increase by a further +€300 million to +€1 billion.”

These benefits are calculated compared with the counterfactual scenario where the initiative had not been introduced.

The review, published by the Department of Public Expenditure on Friday, said the main driver of the positive result was the savings that arose from not having to repeatedly reverify people’s identities.

It said if the public-service identity-management framework did not exist, then at least 17 million extra identity checks would be required from 2010 to 2030 to deliver the same level of public services.

The spending review said that under social welfare legislation, the Department of Social Protection was responsible for securely managing people’s public service identities on behalf of the public service. It said under this system when a body such as the department itself or the passport office had a transaction with an individual, the information already held could be used to verify their identity.

There are three elements to the system, a registration and IT process known as Safe, the public services card itself and MyGovID, which provides an online token of a person’s Safe-verified public service identity.

Once a person has a public services card, they no longer have to submit the same information to authenticate their identity each time they apply for public services provided by bodies who accept it.

Civil servant costs

The spending review also found that the recruitment of a civil servant at administrative officer level will cost more than €4 million over the lifespan of their career, a new spending review has found.

The review, published by the Department of Public Expenditure on Friday, also said this included about €2.73 million in salary and about €340,000 in pension and lump-sum costs.

For a clerical officer recruited to the Civil Service, the spending review forecast that the lifetime cost over their career would be €2.36 million. This would include €1.61 million in pay and about €170,000 in pension and lump-sum costs.

For a mid-ranking executive officer or staff officer, the review projected that the lifetime cost would be just under €3 million.

The review found there were 42,525 active employees in the Civil Service as of December 31st, 2020.

It said that between 2014 and 2020 there had been an average growth rate in the Civil Service workforce of about 3.36 per cent per year.

However, it projected that between 2022 and 2031 about 16,545 staff in the Civil Service would retire.

“The number of retirements is expected to vary over the period, with numbers for the most part increasing each year up to 2027 before gradually falling thereafter,” it said.

The review suggested that between 2022 and 2031 between 3,000 and 3,500 additional personnel would be taken on.

“Significant costs may therefore be expected in respect of new entrants to the Civil Service over coming years.”

Separately a spending review into property operated abroad by the Department of Foreign Affairs maintained that expenditure, for both leased and owned properties, over the five years to 2020 amounted to €172 million.