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ONE OF THE top officials in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP) faced a barrage of questions regarding the Public Services Card (PSC) at an Oireachtas committee this afternoon.
Tim Duggan, assistant secretary of the department’s Client Identity Services section, was giving evidence before the committee concerning his own department.
This followed a previous appearance made by representatives of Ireland’s data protection professions two weeks ago, in which serious concerns regarding the card were raised.
In his opening submission, Duggan said that much of the negative commentary concerning the PSC has been ‘misleading’ and ‘incorrect’ and repeatedly drew attention to the media reportage that has been directed at the project.
“There has been too much emphasis on the card,” he said. Repeating a mantra he would return to repeatedly during his appearance, Duggan said the card is “about making sure we’re dealing with the right people”.
The whole point is to identify someone, not on the balance of probabilities, but to a substantial level of assurance that they are who they say they are.
All the card is is proof that you’ve been through the SAFE process.
SAFE2, or Standard Authentication Framework Environment, is the government’s own in-house identification standard used to process PSC applications.
Legal basis
Regarding the legal basis for the card and its expansion to services other than its initial welfare remit (the latest of which is its requirement when applying for a driving licence or renewal), something repeatedly called into question, Duggan said the department is “fully satisfied that with these provisions there is a robust legal basis for the approach we have taken to identity verification”.
The legality or otherwise of the PSC project has been one of its most consistent criticisms, grouped with the suggestion that it is an attempt to create a national ID card ‘by stealth’.
Duggan said that his department is “acutely aware of GDPR (the EU’s coming General Data Protection Regulation, which goes live on 25 May)” and has a dedicated team “to ensure compliance” with it.
He did not have to answer any questions regarding the fact that the government’s current Data Protection Bill exempts the state from much of the fines/requirements of GDPR, however.
He said that the idea that the public services data contained on the PSC could end up in the hands of private sector concerns is preposterous. “I’d like to make it really clear that nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.
Duggan also made reference to the Data Protection Commissioner’s (DPC) investigation into the card, which was initiated late last year over concerns regarding the project’s transparency and its compliance or otherwise with the existing data protection legislation.
“The commissioner has now provided a plan to DEASP regarding that audit,” he said.
This is not the first time that the DPC has conducted such an audit. The department looks forward to her preliminary conclusions and looks forward to discussing them with her.
Questions and answers
The various members of the committee were not shy in asking Duggan (who actually appeared with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s Barry Lowry, but ended up dominating the session to a large extent) questions about the card, both on foot of the previous committee outing two weeks ago and with regard to media coverage of the data protection issues surrounding it.
Fianna Fáil’s Willie O’Dea wanted to know more about the DPC investigation into the card currently ongoing.
“What exactly is she investigating?” he asked.
If everything is as clear and above board as you say why is that investigation happening?
Sinn Féin’s John Brady said that as far as he is concerned the PSC is an attempt “to introduce a national ID card by stealth” and said he doesn’t believe that the “legal basis is in place”.
He wanted to know how many people have had welfare payments suspended because of a refusal to register for a card, citing the example of a woman in Donegal who had her state pension stopped for 18 months for that reason, and asked how much the card has cost to date.
Brady likewise wanted clarity as to why adopted people, 40% of whom in Ireland don’t realise their own status, are expected to bring an adoption cert with them to a PSC registration appointment, a fact that has been described as “discriminatory”.
Independent Senator Alice Mary Higgins wanted to discuss the fact that the new Data Protection Bill offers “huge exemptions from GDPR to ministers”. “If ministers disregard advice regarding our data infrastructures, well then we have to be very concerned about GDPR,” she said.
We’ve seen mandatory and compulsory, do we need another line now between voluntary and required.
The only non-adversarial statement by a committee member was by Fine Gael’s Joe Carey, TD for Clare, who declared his belief that the PSC “is a good initiative”.
“I have one myself,” he said. “I don’t believe the hysteria that has been going on about this particular issue. Have you received many complaints about them? (the answer to this question would appear to be yes)”
Not related
Regarding the investigation of the Data Protection Commissioner, Duggan noted that the resultant report has been “pushed back”. “The DPC is hoping to conclude the initial phase next month, and the second phase in May or June,” he said, adding that the delay “is due to normal pressure-of-business reasons”.
He clarified that, to date, 3.14 million PSCs have been issued to 2.65 million people (the disparity being attributable to reissues to those who turned 18 or 66 for the most part).
The total cost of the project to date is €59.7 million, he said.
He added that it is “very difficult to answer” how many people have had benefits suspended due to a refusal to register for a PSC as “it is a very fluid situation”. He said that about 4,000 free travel passes have been revoked due to a failure to register, but that “most of those people have never engaged with the department”.
Roughly 450 other cases have seen the suspension of a payment, he said, adding that in the department’s opinion “we think they’ve gone abroad”.
Duggan refused to acknowledge the possibility that the DPC’s investigation might have resulted from her requesting of his own department that it produce a guide to the card in order to answer the common questions regarding it. That investigation was announced at the end of October 2017, roughly one month after the production of the department’s Comprehensive Guide to SAFE Registration and the Public Services Card, itself a response to the DPC’s initial request.
“We haven’t heard that she had any issues with that guide,” he said. “But she initiated an investigation into the card after it was produced,” replied Higgins.
“But it doesn’t necessarily follow that’s the reason why,” Duggan replied in turn.
She hasn’t said if she has any difficulties with the guide we produced.
An ID card?
Regarding the idea that the PSC is a national ID card, he denied this.
“A national ID card is an entirely different idea,” he said. “People are generally compelled to carry (such a card).”
We don’t require people to get a card, we require them to satisfy the minister as to their identity.
On the adoption issue, Duggan said that “there are a lot of things that are required to be satisfied to fulfil SAFE2″.
A mother’s birth name is one of these. The same thing is required if you’re getting a passport (anecdotal evidence would suggest this is not the case – many Irish adopted people living without an adoption cert do have a passport).
Two other statements by the DEASP official may come in for scrutiny – he suggested that “it is not mandatory for a social welfare customer to present a PSC at their post office”, and also said, somewhat definitively, that “it is impossible to get a PSC without registering for one”, after Higgins had asked him about a situation which reportedly saw citizens being posted a card without applying for one.
“We would prefer if that was how a payment was processed,” he said regarding the former. “But when a body says you need a card for this, what they mean is that your ID needs to be verified to a substantial level of assurance”.
The latter, meanwhile, appears to contradict DEASP’s own annual report from 2012, which stated that 64,000 ‘low risk’ customers were issued with PSCs that year as a successor to their own free travel card via a ‘reduced registration process’.
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Can you include an option for, “Yes, under duress, and it was crap”? :P
Damn, I knew we forgot something…
I know a few guys who were forced into reading it by their partners. You really know you’re getting old when your peer pressure issues are about coerced book reading. I wish my friends would pressure me into doing drugs or something.
You look far too young to be reading this kind of thing, duress or no duress
they wont watch porn, but they’ll read the sh*t out of it!!!!
oh… haven’t you worked it out yet??? Men are the visual animals… women need to be stimulated by the mind… :)
OR money Natasha :)
or that too.. but not all of us…. :)
I’m a man, would it be worth reading for me to get some a da tips for da ladies ;) :$ Hubba Hubba ;)
From what my wife has told me the tips you need is to become a multi-billionaire with some fetish’s and make sure you get a girl who is a complete vapid air-head :-)
Hope this helps.
Well I have 1 out of 3 so far :D
My partner went out and bought it. He read the first 100 pages and then declared it was crap and he’s not gonna read the rest. I have no interest in reading it. €6.50 wasted!!!
All the action starts on page 145 :-P
Trying to cut back, so I’m limiting myself to 40 shades of green….
*Obligatory Father Ted Comment*
Down with that sort of thing!
Careful now!
Sure there even coming from Gdansk to see the film
Is it a type of nudie thing Father?
Ah, ye durty fecker!
Honest question, I Have not read it, I don’t plan to, but from what I hear from all the women at work, it’s very poorly written.
So what then is the attraction of it ? Is it just that it makes this type of material more acceptable to read in prudish Ireland ?
You can ask men the same of poor porn!
Yeah that must be it, all these women are reading poorly written erotica in order to shake up our prudish culture. Couldn’t be that they’re into tickling the kitty, oh no no.
great Comment there “Random”. My Question referred to the recent, Let’s say, Uprising, or increase in reading of this type of material by women. Do you have an actual name by the way, or do you just prefer to issue your helpful comments while hiding behind an inconspicuous username.
I’ve read it from an academic perspective…ahem… Yes it’s poorly written, very repetitive, Christian Grey is a bossy, rude, control freak, the female protagonist has massive self esteem issues, and the unremarkable sex involves a contract which I find anything but erotic. To answer your question, I’m baffled at the appeal aside from it possibly being the acceptable face of reading a bit of filth
Tokidoll…….thanks for that! That’s a pretty Damn good summary and answer to my Question !
Happy to oblige ;-)
@tokidoll You nailed it. Picked up a friend’s copy and spent about half an hour reading it – granted flipping though it just to get a sense of the book. I had no wish to continue to reading it in full. The characterisation is very one dimensional, the writing style irritating, the dialogue not believable, it’s just a generally poorly written and constructed book. And I found the image that formed in my mind of Christian Gray repulsive, which didn’t help.
Erotica is grand and all, but I was so distracted by the general awfulness of the novel that it didn’t do anything much for me. There are plenty of less well known but much better written erotic novel or short stories out there.
Thanks Katie :-) The amount of women who state Christian to be their ideal man is quite incredible. The same women will not put up with far less from their own partners. I found I couldn’t even form an image of him in my head he’s that awful.
Geordie Shore in paperback.I dread how us men will have to behave now was just getting over the Sex in the City shite..
only a few women wish to be tortured for sexual gratification.. its a fetish, not the norm. and I know what I’d say to a man who expected me to be kneeling and looking at his feet only!!
Bought into the hype, book 1 was acceptable, book 2 was hard going (s’cuse the pun) and book 3, all those emails, comon!!! Painful (oops, another pun). You want properly written horny material, with a roguish wealthy male character you’ll fall in love with? Meet Rupert Campbell Black in Jilly Coopers “Riders”(no pun). And that was written over 20 yrs ago!!!
I couldn’t finish the third book. I enjoyed the first, its by no means a literary masterpiece, it’s pure trash, but enjoyable trash.
Halfway through the third I said this is enough and pulled out the Jilly Cooper series. Infinitely better.
I hope Jilly Cooper gets a revival on her more deserving books… :)
Yeah I agree, way better story line….good aul Rupe!!! I always wanted to get to off with Dino the Italian American Rider….
have to admit, not a great read l dont know what all the fuss is about
I read it cause everyone was talking about, it’s dire. It’s ok the first book is a best seller but shame on everyone who got the second and third book. Dire…
no ,but from ppl i know who did read it they said it was a load of crap ,got better things to be doing with my money
and your time Marion! You’ll never get that 3 hours back! :-)
I started reading it and about 50 pages in decided that I had already plenty better to be read in my to be read mountain and as I work for the libraries and it was from there with a huge queue I reckoned that giving it back would be better.
I couldn’t stand the two main characters and I just wanted something to come down and wipe them off the face of the planet and start with better characters.
Honestly Mills & Boon Blaze is more readable. There are other writers who didn’t get as much attention that get me more hot and bothered..
And what’s worse this is Twilight Fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, just about.
I bought into the hype, got the first book, I’v read about half of it and just given up its ridiculous!
Im convinced it was written by 13 year old foundation level English student who has spent too much time surfing dodgy sites! Poorly written dosnt even begin to describe it, the same repetitive, unimaginative terms over and over, zero story line and as for Christian Grey, a 20 something year old billionare, who runs this massive corporation but never actually seems to work, plays classical piano, hang-glides, speaks various languages, is drop dead gorgous and hung like a donkey . . . yawn. I did giggle at some of the naughty goings on though, but some of them turned my stomach too like where shes just back from a long run, skips a shower and they get down to it?? Nothing much erotic about soggy socks and smelly runners, and as for the ‘time of the month’ episode … uuggggh
hard to believe that the most poorly written book of all time has become one of the fastest selling!
fifty shades of shite!!!!!!!
I read it…mainly because so many of my friends had read it, and I was curious. You do get kind of caught up in the story, because you do want to see how she (the author) plays it out…I was surprised at how short each book was…but once I got to the end, I was peed off for getting caught up in it. It IS poorly written, and IMO had a poor and unrealistic ending. Take the *porn* out…and you don’t have much of a storyline at all.
In answer to Damien Behan…I don’t think it has anything to do with nationality, it was a bestseller (shockingly so!) in the US and in the UK as well. I think it started out popular as it was loosely based on the Twilight characters (I could be mistaken, but I think this was how it started out) and it just made it easier to purchase. Had it been published the usual route, I can’t say that anyone would have rushed out to buy it.
Most People are just sheep! Go with the masses and what they read quite pathetic! Has anyone a lend of the Davinci code;-)
I loved all three books. There is a great love story behind all the other stuff. Some of the emails are very funny and certainly got a giggle from me. This guy goes from top exec and control freak to mush because he adores Ana so much. So what if there’s lots of “dirt” in it, you’d swear it was the middle ages the way people are giving out about its content. It’s not the first book ever written with incorrect grammar either, I see that as an excuse to avoid the book for other reasons that people won’t admit. I for one think it’s a great read and will be re-reading the trilogy before 2012 is out!!!
I don’t think people are avoiding this book or not ready for its content… I think it’s just badly written, fullstop. If you don’t mind that, that’s your choice.
I for one don’t like forking out money for badly written drivel… This is about as erotic as the first couple of Twilight books :D
Totally disagree on the grammar. If I am reading a novel and there are glaring grammatical errors, poorly constructed sentences, risible dialogue or other major flaws of this type, it destroys the whole experience, because it is so distracting.
I don’t know who edited this book before publication, if anyone did, but they should be fired. It reads like a bad early draft.
There should be a fourth option – “I’ll only be reading the dirty bits”.
Load of drivel.. Will be affording it like the plague… It just shows you that no matter how poorly a book is written as long as it has well marketed, it will sell.
I got it as a joke birthday present and thought “Oh, why not?” Made it about 50 pages before I gave up out of sheer boredom. The writing is terrible, the characters are appalling, and even the only thing going for it – the “erotic” bits – are cringe-worthy. I’ve got nothing against porn (sorry “erotica”), but that’s just bad.
I read the first chapter of the first book but couldn’t push myself to start the second chapter… so so bad…! My cousin in the US was raving about it that’s why I bought it.. Won’t be listening to her again in a hurry!!!!
useless
Why would I want to fantasise about a man who is not my husband? It sounds like a recipe for disaster in marriage to me!!
why the thumbs down? are there soany unhappy women out there?
Thought police
ooh.. someone has been to marriage guidance counselling.. in church! But hang on to that ideal for as long as you can Tracy… life has a way of making marriages/relationships go cold after a while… doesn’t mean you love them any less… but fantasising is part of life.. in all aspects.. .I fantasise about owning an Audi R8 ;0), but unless my circumstances change dramatically, I’m very happy with my golf!!
@ Tricia – funny you should refer to it as “dirt” – no one else has.
It’s not just about poor grammar, in fact, most people think/talk in poor grammar, so sometimes that can make a book great. There are parts that can cause a smile/giggle sure. But overall the book is poor and the storyline weak. And I am sorry, but the ending just isn’t realistic at all. The sex scenes are repetitive, and in fact by the second book, you can pretty much skip through them.
A good writer makes you want to read every word, understand every nuance, so that even if you skip to the end to see what happens, you still want to go back, and see how the characters get to the end. That is what makes a good novel.
*change most people to some :)
I absolutely agree with you. Cant say any more than you have so I’m going back to my Nora Roberts and Sydney Sheldon novels :)
I have no intention of ever buying and reading that book. I saw extracts online and it sounds badly written, and not in the least erotic to me… That’s what some of my friends that have read it said as well! I’d be laughing all the way through that book, I reckon!
Fair play to the author and her publisher – the PR has certainly paid of for them! The amount of people that rushed to buy that book only to find it somewhat disappointing!
Picked it up in the airport, took the metaphorical blue pencil to the grammatical errors on page one, thought if this is the hook how bad can the rest be and put it back on the pile. Did read Justine when I was fourteen and from all the comments and extracts this is a straight rip off of de Sade. Neither the literacy level nor the sex to my taste I’m afraid
It sounds like absolute pop-culture bilge, like all the most famous popular books. The average person on the street wouldn’t know good literature if it sexually assaulted them.
I’m just after eating a baguette. What I miss?
In 2 or 3 yrs if anyone mentions FSOG – nobody will remember. By what I’ve heard about the book that will be no bad thing.
i disagree with u there, i think it will be remembered and in 2 or 3 years time people will be bringing up the children that are here as a result of the book…ha ha
No, and not planning to either. The bits of it I’ve seen on the Net convinced me within about a minute and a half that it’s a depressing waste of perfectly good trees that would have served the human race much better had they been processed into bogroll. An American character from Seattle talking in anglicisms? Seriously? All the clichés of cool there, yet she’s still a virgin at the ripe old age of 21? What? The entire feck knows how many pages of drivel.based on TWILIGHT FANFIC, and bad twilight fanfic to boot? Bitches, please! And don’t even get me started on the thing’s despicable gender policy! That book is wrong more levels than I feel comfortable counting to, and I don’t need to read it to know that!
Bought the trilogy in easons yesterday.
I’ve come across too much badly written fanfic to be suckered into paying for a trilogy full of badly written fanfic. There’s enough free erotica on the internet – some of it well written, most of it sub FSOG, but good for some personal ann summers sponsored funtime 8-D
What does this say about modern women(who are buying this) if Katie Price actually wrote one of her books,can imagine it would be as badly written .
Yes I’ve read all 3 and thoroughly enjoyed them:-)))))
Got through the first chapter and couldn’t read any more . Pure drivel !
It’s no worse than all those shitty soaps most people insist on watching. Each to their own.
If you’re sad enough to read this garbage to spice up your sex life then you’re obviously with the wrong partner ! Jeez get a life all you pathetic sex starved bored housewives !!!
But seriously I think the pr machine behind this obviously worked a fooled alot of silly women into Reading it .
I see women are reading this shyte on the bus at 8am… I’m wondering how those woman behave at work after reading this stupid book:)
I know quite a few people who have read this….i personally dont know what all the fuss is about? As others have already said, raunchy novels have been around for years and year…Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper etc. Why the sudden hype for this “mummy porn” as it’s been dubbed by the press? I havent read it, have bought it….i wondered what all the fuss was about, but after hearing othets and reading here i don’t know if i can be bothered. IF I do though, it certainly won’t be to pep up my sex life so maybe people shouldn’t generalise so much!
Welll I’d rather watch regular “daddy” porn which is freely available on the Internet than waste time Reading this drivel !!
I read Lady Chatterlys Lover in the 1960s, no book could surpass that.
BTW I tried reading 40 shades of Grey, it was flat and uninteresting, seems to be written by an a person who is not wholly comfortable with grammar, syntax and descirptive language. Mediocre at best .
Load of muck! wouldn’t be caught dead reading it
https://plus.google.com/photos/106229672780094983587/albums/5770569287038039809
I was interested to see the book sales and amazon sales statistics for the trilogy. Book one has sold millions but part two and three have not neared those sales figures. Read: I’ll try it because everyone’s talking about it. Then , I’m not paying good money for more of that rubbish.
Got through three chapters before my brain forced me to stop. Bit like trying to force yourself to watch sex and the city.
50 shades of divorce waiting to happen!
In fairness I gave it a good go, got about a third of the way through and gave up. Complete and utter tripe. My sister (the non-reader) is on the second book. There’s no accounting for taste…
50 shades of shite!
Are there vampires with teenage issues in it and a mysterious loaner? I assume there must be if so many women are watching it
Reading it
An other website is asking will these books cause a baby boom, well they haven’t been on the streets as there is already a baby boom this year and as for reading these book, have not and plan not to. All rubbish to me. Prefer my fantasy with Vamps, weres and Witch.
If you wanna read a well written, actually erotic novel with a good story line, ladies, read some of Benoite Groult’s novels, e.g. Salt on our Skin. Now there’s a sexy book ;)
Tell us about it Rita.
Wanna save yourself reading the book? Here’s the audio-version :D
What are you all fussing about? It’s just a book. Get over it. I bought it ‘cos I like buying books, I was curious and I didn’t realise that buying it was making a serious lifetime commitment to its excellence. FFS people it’s only a few euro how tight are you guys?
I also read it. APPALLING editing but it rattles along and it’s over before you know it. I agree with others the sex gets boring after a bit.
The ‘mummy porn’ tag is just the usual sexist crap.
If you want a crime against literature, how about awarding the Booker to that twaddle Sense of an Ending?
Just when I thought women had come so far…
@ Lilanda. Thanks. I’ll tell him that.
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