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A ROW IS brewing over the public services card ahead of the resumption of the Dáil and Seanad next month.
Civil liberties campaigners have raised concerns about the card after confirmation that possession of one will soon be required in order to obtain a driving licence or a passport.
Data protection experts have complained that that the government is attempting to create an ID card system “by stealth”, and Fianna Fáil has called for a debate on the issue to take place in both houses of the Oireachtas.
The card is not new – it was originally introduced in 2012 – but its rollout is coming under renewed focus after a number of cases (see below) which saw people lose out on public services because they don’t have one.
In the UK, attempts to introduce ID cards rumbled on for nearly a decade – causing numerous headaches for prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as they attempted to bring in various versions of the scheme in the face of fierce opposition.
From the inception of the plan to the eventual, limited introduction of the cards, the dispute played out over an eight year period from 2002.
The scheme was scrapped entirely with the election of David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s Conservative-Lib Dem government in 2010.
Here’s what happened…
Tony Blair’s Labour government had proposed the idea of national ID cards after 9/11 as a way of combatting terrorism.
The initial plan was shelved, but a new version was introduced by Home Secretary David Blunkett in 2002. It was now being described as an ‘entitlement’ card which would be used to combat social welfare fraud.
A public consultation was launched: despite the fact that almost two-thirds of the 7,000 submissions were against the idea, Blunkett said he was pressing ahead with the project.
Blunkett pressed for legislation to be included in the 2003 Queen’s Speech, which traditionally sets out the priorities of the UK government for the coming year, but Blair’s cabinet was split on the issue.
The Home Secretary insisted the cards would ensure “people don’t work if they are not entitled to work, they don’t draw on services which are free in this country, including health, unless they are entitled to”.
Plans to bring in a national ID system were eventually outlined in the Queen’s November speech – but the scheme was to be delayed until later in the decade so that biometric data could be included.
Blunkett resigned and was replaced by Charles Clarke in 2004, but the new Home Secretary insisted he would press ahead with the ID card plan: legislation continued to make its way through parliament.
Labour suffered several defeats on the legislation in the House of Lords in 2006. In one such vote, Tory and Liberal Democrat peers managed to strike down plans to link the card to passport applications – insisting the government was trying to bring in compulsory ID cards “by stealth”.
Lady Kennedy, a human rights lawyer and Labour party rebel, had argued that the measure amounted to introducing compulsory ID “by the back door”. The legislation would have required all passport applicants to enter their details on a national identity register.
Labour ministers had warned the peers they ought to follow parliamentary convention and green light the measure, as it had featured in the government’s election manifesto. Opponents, however, said that the manifesto had promised a voluntary scheme, whereas the one being proposed would have to be accepted by anyone applying for a passport.
By the end of the year Tony Blair was still insisting the identity card scheme should go ahead for reasons of “modernity”. At a press conference, he also stressed the personal benefit of having an ID card, saying it would do away with the need to produce other documents to prove your identity.
After a 2006 compromise that allowed the bill to pass through the Lords, the rollout began in 2008 as ID cards became compulsory for foreign nationals.
A trial plan to make the cards mandatory for pilots and airside staff at London City and Manchester airports was dropped the following year, after union opposition.
Alan Johnson, who had by then taken over as Home Secretary, conceded that the cards should not have been sold as the “panacea for tackling terrorism” and said that had been a factor in “messing up” the debate.
“People who worked airside were resenting the fact there was compulsion involved,” Johnson said – although he insisted the ID scheme was still very much alive.
As the BBC reported at the time, the government had always envisaged that the scheme would eventually be compulsory. It had always insisted, however, that the cards would not be made compulsory without MPs being allowed to vote on the issue – and it was never proposed that it would actually be mandatory to carry one at all times.
A year after they were rolled out for foreign nationals, the final design of the card was unveiled to the public in 2009 and they were offered at first to members of the public in Greater Manchester.
The cards, which were available from £30, would be launched nationwide in 2011 or 2012, the government announced. Home Secretary Alan Johnson helmed the regional launch in July 2009, saying:
“The introduction of ID cards today reaches another milestone, enabling the people of Manchester to prove and protect their identity in a quick, simple and secure way.
Given the growing problem of identity fraud and the inconvenience of having to carry passports, coupled with gas bills or six months worth of bank statements to prove identity, I believe the ID card will be welcomed as an important addition to the many plastic cards that most people already carry.
The opposition described it as a “colossal waste of money” and civil liberties campaigners said it was “as costly to our pockets as to our privacy”.
As the rollout continued, the scheme was extended across the North West and to 16- to 24-year-olds in London in 2010.
By May of that year there were around 15,000 cards in circulation.
The same month, David Cameron became Prime Minister following a general election and his Home Secretary Theresa May announced she was scrapping the cards. A separate but similar scheme for foreign nationals would continue.
The entire project was estimated to have cost £5 billion – although the London School of Economics estimated at the time that the true cost could be far higher.
The debate hasn’t entirely gone away, however.
At the beginning of last year Nicholas Soames, a Tory MP, asked then-Immigration Minister James Brokenshire whether he would consider ID cards as a way of combatting the growing terror threat in Europe.
The idea was dismissed by Brokenshire, who responded:
There are steps that we are taking through various measures to enhance the security of this country but our judgment remains that ID cards is not the right way forward.
This summer, it was announced that EU citizens living in the UK after Brexit would need to apply for a new residence document to prove their right to stay in the country.
Again the familiar ‘by stealth’ argument raised its head – as opponents accused the government of trying to bring in ID cards “by the back door”.
“It is not an ID card,” Brexit Secretary David Davis insisted in the House of Commons.
We are talking about documentation to prove that people have the right to a job and the right to residence, but they will not have to carry that around all the time. It is not an ID card; it is rather like your birth certificate. It’s not an ID card!
Here at home, both main opposition parties have called for a debate on the issue of public services cards.
Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said this week that there were “very considerable and legitimate concerns regarding privacy and sharing of sensitive data”. Fianna Fáil’s Seanad spokesperson for Social Protection Catherine Ardagh said it was essential both houses of the Oireachtas had an opportunity to debate the matter.
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Let’s hope it is historically accurate !!!
@ Dario Fo
i wish the slab (and all the other IRA enablers) were on the slab
Enda – there has been enough killing in our short history since partition – so encourage the option of peace !
I hope its historical accurate too, the uprising was very unpopular at the start and there were boos and Jeers outside the GPO when the Rebels first made an appearance.
Will make a change from Downturn Abbey over the Christmas period……
Enda was done more harm to this country and it’s people, than the IRA ever did. How many killed themselves due to government policy and decision making??
@ Cllr Malachy Quinn
peace while we sweep murder and abuse under the rug? no thanks
This will be a godsend for the Late Late, RTE radio and all the other RTE talk shows. We’ll see the actors, directors, camera crew etc etc interviewed endlessly. RTE “celebrities” interviewing RTE staff. That’s what passes for entertainment in Montrose
Looks like a great cast and great to Irish actresses taking the lead.
Sarah Greene won a Tony award on Broadway and Bradley is a brilliant theatrical actress – hope the script is good enough for them.
Ah Broadway…. Theatre… I’d rather wait until the actors are good enough for the films before going to see them.
As critical as I am of rte this Looks like a quality programme, if it has the same amount of debt and interest as love/hate it should be good.
Debt and interest have this country in the dire straits it currently is! The 1916 revolutionaries will be turning in their graves, unless of course NAMA have sold them off
Charlie Murphy you beauty.
RTE production so I’m expecting Enda to be fighting in the GPO bravely for his country
Ha ha Enda would be found hiding under Merkels skirt more like.
Mammy Merkel to enda
“RTE production so I’m expecting Enda to be fighting in the GPO bravely for his country”
In my best theatrical trailer voiceover tone…..
“They died so that Apple could avoid tax”
…..And so slab could pay it like the rest of us, but no. And look who’s defending him.
Imagine if the 1916 rising never took place. We’d probably have had a vote and our independence by now.
There is a rumor, Merkel & Ends are into bondage Joan has been dumped (apparently because she’s useless)
will Brian do for 1916 what his father Brendan did for Martin Cahill ?
@ Paul Mc
was that before or after he closed down the Vatican embassy ?
Jamming, when did apple come to Ireland again?
I’m looking forward to now I must say. Hopefully the start of a good year of remembrance.
Lads do ye have nothing better to do only to connect every story with the government? Could ye not spend you’re time more productively like getting on with things!
Another classic in dumbed down schmaltz from the masters of Montrose.
Fair City with gunfire.
I’ve been clean of RTE for 12 years. Life is better without it. Irish TV is only for those in nursing homes.
Oooh, sounds exciting….anytime I’ve seen Fair City I always found myself thinking that it could only be enhanced by the addition of heavy artillery.
The only people who watch RTE these days are rural folk with no broadband option.
There’s always options. Read a book, have a game of scrabble or naked twister if you’re not in the mood for rooting around in a bag of tiles hoping for a ‘u’ to sort out that ‘q’.
The birth of our nation through the blood sacrifice of heroic men who gave their lives for our freedom.
The historical enormity of the moment.
The course of Irish history altered forever.
And RTE treats the nation to a soap drama about the love life of a civil servant called May.
From Cork.
Would you feel better if he was from Waterford , Tommy ?
Tommy why did you change your surname again ?
Have to agree, tuned in via their app. Like watching Groundhog Day, same people since the station opened in the 50`s. Zzzzzzzzzz. The only good thing they have is the News and they have cobwebs, saying the same thing year in year out. Zzzzzzzzz
Shh!
(I was excommunicated)
Ah red thumbs relax I was only winding Tommy up , I actually find his comments very interesting .
Sorry Tommy , I’ll keep it a secret from now on ….
@ Tommy When you refer to “the birth of our nation”, I hope you remember that the Republic envisaged by the men amd women of 1916 has yet to be attained. None of them went out and gave their lifeblood in order to win a 26 county state or a partitioned country. Tom Clarke, the main organiser of the Rising, from Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, didn’t go out and fight for Co. Tyrone’s right to be partitioned from the rest of his nation. Such a shame that the country’s continuing partition is the real big, shameful ‘elephant in the room’ of the state’s 1916 commemorations.
The opening scenes have a 12 year old Nidge selling snuff outside the GPO.
will they murder cats with rifles that require wadding paper and musket balls ?
Saw a few adverts for this new show, the quality looks awful. RTE made a great series in 1966 called ‘Insurrection’ based on the events of Easter week. Once the Troubles broke out they never aired the series again.
I remember watching Insurrection when it aired, scripted I think, by Hugh Leonard. The reason they never showed it again (I think) is because they didn’t keep the tapes, it had nothing to do with “the troubles” in Northern Ireland ? Especially as RTE during the 70′s was virtually controlled by SF/IRA sympathisers.
why don’t RTE broadcast THE TREATY a movie with Brendan Gleeson ?
its a better mick collins film than the one with liam neeson
“Especially as RTE during the 70′s was virtually contolled by SF/IRA”. I’ve read some remarkable statements on this site over time, but that one takes the biscuit. To claim that RTÉ were ever a bastion of the provisional movement takes fantasy to proportions usually reserved for hollywood blockbuster script writers. This is the same organisation that, in the era Dermot mentions, was under the restriction of Section 31, a piece of state media censorship legialation introduced solely to stiffle Sinn Féin and a piece of media censorship that RTÉ would later go to the supreme court over, in order to argue for the right to further limit on IT’S OWN freedom of speech. This is the same RTÉ which, to basically every holistorian in the land, was described as having been infiltrated in the early 70′s by the Workers party, a group most viciously, bitterly anti-SF as anyone else at the time. This is the same RTÉ which, in 1973, was openly condemned by the National Union of Journalists for consistently toeing the government line on all “security” issues…in other words, on matters relating to the conflict. This is the same RTÉ which neglected to examine accusations of British state involvement in the Dublin/Monagahan bombs in 1974. This is the same RTÉ which, for the most part of the 70′s, ignored the miscarriages of justice imposed upon the Birmingham Six and others, lest they appear to be seen as associating themselves to closely with a cause which at the time was uniting nationalism/republicanism behind it. This is the same RTÉ who’s journalist Kevin O’Kelly was first fired, then jailed, for disobeying Section 31, when he broadcasted an audio recording of IRA Chief of Staff, Sean Mac Stiofain, without identifying that this was who’s voice it was on the tape. This is the same RTÉ which, as of 1973, came under the responsibilty of Conor Cruise O’Brien, a man synonymous with his hatred of Sinn Féin, the IRA, republicanism in general, and his deeply partitionost beliefs. A man who, in 1973, installed an entirely new RTÉ authority staff, and implemembted a regime under which it was later noted that those who didn’t toe the anti-Republican and partitionist line, with full obedience of section 31, were ‘sent to agriculture, religious or childrens broadcasting departmemts’. Honestly Dermot, that is a simply astonishingly illinformed remark which just beggars belief.
Incredibly factual tír Eoghain.
Saw some of it being filmed near smith field markets a couple of months back
So what
Wow Graham , how interesting please tell us more.
The start of the road that led to the bank bail out.
Looks like it’s worth watching
and a horrible civil war were brother and sister killed each other, and many forms of dysfunction that survive to this day.
Was lucky enough to see it the other night, it’s going to be a very influential series. Some excellent performances, the set and costumes are very accurate and from what I could gather from the first episode is that whilst the characters are fictionalised it seemed very historically accurate. The Citizen Army, Liberty Hall, the Feminist Activists, the Volunteers, the Irish who fought in WW1, the Home Rulers and Dublin Castle all were well portrayed. I can see a longer series taking in the War of Independence and the Civil War as a possibility.
It definitely looks very well done,looking forward to it :). Hopefully they do take up a longer series going into the Irish War of Independence & Civil War.Thanks for the insight aswell.
@ Sen James Heffernan
true for you
It is very perverse that those who claim to want a united Ireland are the same people who profit from the existence of the border
Enda a United Ireland is inevitable
Sen James Heffernan – once a Shinner always a Shinner !
Definitely worth reading through:
http://trinitynews.ie/1916-still-poses-a-dilemma-for-the-government-parties-and-fianna-fail/
“……Perhaps during freshers’ week you snapped a selfie with the hijacked Shinner at the Young Fine Gael stand. A cardboard cutout of a former IRA director of intelligence: the architect of the killings of at least 70 suspected British intelligence officers in Dublin; the creator of a ruthless IRA assassination unit, “The Squad”; the man who masterminded the IRA’s finances for three years, funnelling about $6 million into its coffers, and the man who said of suspected spies and agents, “[b]y their destruction the very air is made sweeter. For myself, my conscience is clear.” Young Fine Gael proudly present the one, the only, the highly respectable Mr Michael Collins, Sinn Féin TD for Armagh (that’s probably foreign country to Fine Gael), 1921-22.
This coming year, the words of Connolly are especially apt. “Apostles of Freedom are ever idolised when dead, but crucified when living.” ”
1916 was good,The War of Idependence was good,Nelson Mandela and the ANC was good…..but actually, what happened up there, was All bad -It can’t be one way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Qb3iRb4I0
Lets not forget that 1916 also saw the Battle of the Somme, I wonder how the series will portray that.
#ShinnerPorn
Ha ha watch the shinnerbots red thumb that one. The comrades will burn the thumbs clean off themselves signing in and out of their bogus Twitter and Facebook accounts. When are ye breaking up for Christmas shinnerbots or are ye going to haunt every story on the Journal over the hols as per every other day. What are the instructions from the Army Command on this?
Lads!
SF don’t own the word republican and the rights to the 1916 celebrations!
1916 is a celebration for all citizens of this country!!
Yes mcgoo/Thomas/Dane/patjoejoe/Diarmuid/Man of Ireland……they will bring all their account to bear on this!
‘Haunt every article’ you brought it up.
1916 celebrations for all the citizens of this Ancient proud Island called Ireland, (if the want)
have you got a problem with that?
@ Ciaran
the human sewage also known as the IRA will sing songs in 2016
@Ciaran Sinn Féin organise annual Rising Commemorations in each and every county, each and every year. If it appears to you that Sinn Féin are the only ones who link themselves to the Rising, it’s probably down to the fact that Sinn Féin commemorate it each and every year, not just every few decades on just one side of the border and done just for the tv cameras, like the brave patriots of FF/FG. “There’s panic down in Leinster House, where words are seldom scarce; “Send someone to glasnevin quick to remember Padraig Pearse!”". Apt lyrics of a song which sum up the self-serving nature of FG/FF’s borrowed pride in the Rising leaders, and the fact that it would not surprise if the most of them belived Pearse were buried in Glasnevin rather than Arbour Hill.
Delighted to hear Ms Panti is playing Maud Gonne
I’ll set the recorder.
There’s no such thing as ‘Independence’, it’s just an exchange of power.
another boring RTE drama. Glad I don’t have it.
Before you’ve seen it… Wow
@ Dave barrett
will it be like the wind that shakes the bbbaaaaarrrrrr leyyyyyyyy like
the one they shot down in CCCCoooorrrrrrrrrrr kkkkkkkkkkkk
Looking forward to it. It’ll be a keepy… :-)
Great to see John Connors in there, I look forward to seeing this
@ Micheál Ó Braonáin
well that’s a lovely story
another sad waste of film, please someone with half a brain and an iphone get something with at least a smidgen of life
With ads for some diesel guzzler every 10 mins …?
Hope RTÉ haven’t spent ‘customers’ money on glorifying the bloodletting of 100 years ago.
@ Rodger 5
was it Joe Duffy or someone else said that 3 out of 5 lives lost that week were irish
And many children died also… I wouldn’t get too carried away with the romance of events.
@ Stephen Duffy
its not enough to enable murder abroad, we have to celebrate murder at home
Hope it’s better than charlie. ..that was pure shite tbh
Some points worth noting about these 1916 leaders:
James Connolly-born in Scotland, spoke with a Scottish accent
Constance Markievicz-English
De Valera-American Cuban, possibly an Ashkenazi Jew, unconfirmed.
Not a great review… But here’s hoping…
When Bertie suggested suicide for those who couldn’t keep up with life under his guidance the suicide rates escalated leading to more deaths the following year than ever. It hasn’t gotten any better and Bertie should keep his big mouth shut forever. He has done more damage than the rising and I hope it is on his headstone “Here lies Bertie the Prime Minister who promoted Suicide”
I heard there is no women in it, sure there were no women back then!
In this version maybe the good Republicans pull off a Northern Bank style robbery of the GPO.
Well done to whoever brought along the potato to take the shot of them on set.
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