Access to Department of Social Protection services by digital means will continue to be “optional”, the Dáil has been told, despite concerns about compulsory expansion of the Public Services Card (PSC) for digital identification.
Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary said: “There are people who do not wish to or are not comfortable using digital services. We will continue to make our services available on an optional basis.”
He made his comments after confirming the EU issued a regulation in 2024 requiring member states to create a “legally binding framework for digital identities” to allow citizens “access public and private services across member states”.
Each EU state is expected to provide a “digital identity wallet” by the end of this year.
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Calleary said, however, “if someone is not comfortable with it, I am speaking as one such person”, non-digital options for services “should be fully available”.
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He was responding in the Dáil on Thursday to Sinn Féin social protection spokeswoman Louise O’Reilly, who said the card was “mired in controversy”.
“A succession of ministers have tried to defend how this card will be mandatory but somehow not compulsory,” she said.
The card is used to access public services, including social protection payments and free public transport for pensioners.
With the digital wallet, people will be able to store driving licenses, EU health insurance cards and age verifiers on their phones and produce them for “entitlement to services and benefits anywhere in the EU”, Calleary said.
A “key benefit” is that personal data will be controlled by the citizen, who decides “whether they want to use the wallet” and “what credentials they hold in the wallet”.
Calleary added that the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer is inviting the public to take part in a consultation and testing phase of a pilot Government digital wallet.
But the Sinn Féin TD said groups, including the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, are concerned. When the PSC was brought in, “it was said that it would be mandatory but not compulsory, or compulsory but not mandatory”.
But anyone over 65 must have a card to access the free travel scheme, she said. There is a “creeping sense” that people are being asked to hand over their identity and have a level of trust in the Government in the holding of their data.
