Motorists could be able to have their driving licences on in a digital wallet on their smartphones by the end of the year under plans approved by Ministers.
The Cabinet agreed to advance the development of the Government’s ‘Life Events’ programme which will include a single online portal for accessing services including birth and death registration and social welfare benefits.
Ministers also signed off on plans for a new digital wallet that people will be able use for their driving licence as well as electronic versions of their European health insurance card and birth certificate.
Minister of State for eGovernment Ossian Smyth said the paper or plastic cards or documents would not be obsolete but the new digital wallet would allow people to leave them safely at home.
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The digital wallet is being tested in its pilot phase. Mr Smyth says he has his driving licence on his phone as part of this and he is “fully expecting that it’s going to be live for the general public later this year”.
He said that for it to be useful and functional the electronic driving licence would have to be acceptable to gardaí and “we’re working with the Attorney General on that just to make sure that any legislation that needs to be in place is there”.
Mr Smyth said the current need to deal with various different Government departments during different life events such as getting married or divorced, buying or selling a car or moving home from living abroad can be a “huge headache”.
He said the idea of the new portal – also due to go live later this year – is “to make those significant life events easy to manage and to reduce the time that’s involved in dealing with them”.
Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said the Government would use the data involved “responsibly and safely and will do so in a way that respects the rights clearly of all of our citizens.”
He said it would be funded from the Public Service Innovation Fund which has as much as €15 million available and the Government believes the cost will be “well inside the money that’s available in that fund at the moment”.
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