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SENIOR CIVIL SERVANTS within government departments were told earlier this year to look at making the PSC a potential replacement for the Medical Card.
This direction in June came at a time when the government will have been aware of the draft report from the Data Protection Commissioner which found that making the PSC mandatory for anything other than welfare was illegal. The findings of this draft were reinforced with the final report completed last month and published this week.
Furthermore, civil servants were also told to prepare a “detailed plan for advancing the PSC as an age card”.
Having a “widespread adoption of the PSC infrastructure” was “critical to the successful delivery of the ‘egovernment’ strategy”, according to a report prepared for senior civil servants last October.
Last month, the Data Protection Commissioner said that its report into the legality of the card had found no lawful basis for the mandatory use of the PSC aside from welfare payments, and also found the State was unlawfully retaining the information of millions of people who applied for the card.
Commissioner Helen Dixon also found that the government hadn’t been sufficiently transparent in terms of the personal data it processes in the context of the PSC.
The government, however, has said it doesn’t agree with the DPC’s findings and won’t be complying with its direction to stop retaining applicants’ personal data.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil last week that he’s a big supporter of the card while Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty said that withdrawing it now would be “potentially unlawful”.
At present, the government hasn’t indicated it will be appealing the decision but will likely fight the matter if the DPC takes it to court.
For some time, the government had sought to widen the uses the uses of the PSC - which was initially introduced for social welfare in 2011 – to access other government services.
This included driving licences and passports – but a number of departments, including Transport and Foreign Affairs, have since rolled back on those requirements.
Expanding the PSC is part of the government’s wider plan to migrate access to many of its services online so that, when you need to access a government service, MyGovId is the first port of call.
Through MyGovId you can submit a driving licence application, access your Revenue account or apply for a student grant, amongst other services. However to get onto MyGovId, you must first have a PSC.
“Detailed plan”
A draft of the DPC’s report was given to the government in August last year. Last month, Dixon told TheJournal.ie the findings of that draft were broadly similar to those of the final version of the report. The main finding of this was that making the card mandatory for anything other than welfare has no lawful basis.
However, according to documents released to TheJournal.ie and its investigative platform Noteworthy.ie under the Freedom of Information Act, the government was actively looking at expanding the current uses of the PSC in 2019 despite already being told it didn’t have a lawful basis to do.
In June of this year, a meeting of the most senior civil servants in the country decided to explore the possibility of replacing the Medical Card with the Public Services Card in the future.
This development was included in a paper from the Civil Service Management Board, which is made up of all secretaries general and heads of office in each department.
Included in a section under “primary actions… to be followed up at the next meeting”, it says:
[Department of] Health to investigate the utilisation of MyGovId for medical card applications, and the potential that the PSC could replace the medical card in the future.
According to figures from the Department of Health, there are 1.57 million people in the country with a Medical Card, which provides free GP care and other health services.
To qualify for a medical card, you must provide details of your income, expenses, marital status and dependents. Currently, you don’t need to provide any of this for the PSC.
In the first half of 2019, it was decided that the Department of Justice and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection would work together to “set out a detailed plan for advancing the Public Services Card as an age card”.
This was reiterated in the June meeting. One of the actions that the note from the Civil Service Management Board indicated will be undertaken is for the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection to “identify suitable legislation for the PSC to act as an age identifier”.
In separate documentation, it’s pointed out that there will be an option to display date of birth on a PSC in the future.
Indeed, draft legislation from the government before the Dáil would mean the PSC could be used as a de-facto age card when purchasing alcohol.
Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon told TheJournal.ie last month that while such developments may appear benign, allowing it to be accepted to confirm age by private entities would be a “very, very big step” and something which shouldn’t happen without public debate.
Dixon also highlighted that the expansion of the PSC to a range of services, rather than making accessing public services easier, actually acted as an impediment for people wishing to access those services.
She added that any movement towards making the card mandatory for a host of additional services should be the subject of public debate.
Solicitor and director of Data Compliance Europe director Simon McGarr told TheJournal.ie that the Department of Justice working on the PSC as an age card indicated strongly that it would move towards a card that could be used to satisfy the gardaí as to your identity and age.
“Like the old garda ID card,” he said, adding that the difference here was that it was envisaged for the PSC, which also acts as a compulsory item for a host of other government services.
“Mandatory” but not “compulsory”
Minister Regina Doherty made headlines for the wrong reasons in August 2017 when she told Newstalk Breakfast that the card is is “mandatory” but not “compulsory”.
The government has said that it doesn’t agree with the findings from the DPC and will not cease its programme with the PSC.
The 2018 draft of the report said there was no legal basis for the card to be mandatory for anything other than welfare. The finalised, 2019 version of the report indicated the same.
Within that window between the draft and the finalised report, civil servants were tasked with drawing up plans to expand the use of the card anyway.
McGarr said that looking at making it a requirement for medical cards, especially, was that senior civil servants “do not wish to recognise the limits” within the law of this data gathering, sharing and merging.
He said: “Really the most concerning thing is that the people in charge of the civil service – the stewards of the nation’s data – aren’t aware of what is and isn’t legal in respect of it.
They want to find out about [replacing the medical card with the PSC]. That’s their impulse. They’re revealing they don’t know what the limits of the State are… And this is key to all of the State’s errors in the area [of data protection].
Given the government’s refusal to adhere to the findings of the report, the next step will be for the DPC to issue enforcement action ordering it to comply with the findings, which could end up in a court battle.
In a note to other senior civil servants about the DPC’s findings last month, the secretaries general of both the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection said they were “mindful” of the implications this report had.
“The advice we have received from a legal perspective is to keep comment to a minimum and pending full consideration of the report and the development of an appropriate response,” they said.
In this regard it is to be noted that the DPC findings draw on particular legal interpretations of relevant law that merit careful consideration.
“We remain committed to the project and the important benefits it provides,” they added.
With additional reporting from Ken Foxe and the team at Noteworthy.ie – find out more about their work here.
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Ministers and department heads are working illegally and there is no one to stop them,FG are tyrants and need to be stopped.
@@mdmak33: The government and a branch of it are both contradicting one another over this issue, clearly one has to be wrong. The government is behaving like a school yard bully who, one it’s realised it’s painted itself into a corner and realised it’s wrong, decided to come out fighting. It could have retained some moral ground by admitting defeat months ago, the fact that it didn’t indicates further plans for the PSC we haven’t heard yet. Anyone else would just admit defeat and move on.
@Arch Angel: True, and time and time again with FG/FF we have seen the pressing ahead on infrastructure plans, when anyone with a bit of common sense would have pulled the plug. NCH, plug should have been pulled, NBP plug should have been pulled. We would have saved billions, instead literally pressing ahead with both. Apple is another billion euro cock up in the making, the EU will have a field day once the funds have to be released. I mentioned FF, because they are standing by looking at FG making screw up after screw up and not shutting this down. FF are literally letting FG hang themselves with there own rope, while we the public look on at this farce. How anyone can vote for either is beyond me at this stage.
There must be someway we can force this down people’s throats. Just get it in and we can charge people ..another stealth tax by FG and co
@Leo Lalor:
I must have missed where the card is used to generate taxes?
@Tim Pot: It is not. Leo is just another tool who loves to use the latest buzzword they picked up to try and come across as edgey. Probably a Shinner.
@Peter D W Clancy: you’ve just done exactly what you described!
Ms. Dixon just needs to slap the enforcement notice on DEASP and let’s get on with it. Pretty sure the government are going to lose this….
@Sean Oige: If she issues an enforcement order now then this is effectively not sorted out until after byelections and even next General election which is what would suit FG Government!
@Nuala Mc Namara: That’s FG’s game plan here.
General election coming up soon….if the people make it an issue on the doorsteps with FF/FG candidates they’ll puddle their trousers.
@Billy Big Baws:
absolutely! We should all be getting onto our elected reps pushing for a single information database system to manage all the government services we avail of on a daily basis.
It makes sense, it would be simpler for us to use and cost the state less in reducing unneccesary replications of data handling throughout the public service. It would also be safer as there would only need to be one database of information that needs to be secured, rather than a plethora of current systems with varying degrees of repitition and errors, all with varying levels of security vulnerabilities.
@Tim Pot: go to bed paschal…
@Tim Pot: Why did IW refer to PPS numbers ie personal data as ‘ASSETS’ initially on its website before it was eventually taken down ,according to Gene Kerrigan at the time?Our personal data should never be viewed as a private company’s assets or Government assets for that matter!
@Tim Pot: By the way each Government Department has a Data Controller and supposed to have Data Protection Officers so that would continue.
What I find troubling is wouldnt the 1st most important aspect of other Departments needing/demanding PSC would be to have proper legislation to cover that?
@Nuala Mc Namara: Even in that Fg have broken the law. The DEASP has designated the Department itself as the Data Controller. The law requires a specif person to be designated as Data Controller.
The FG minority government have deliberately and knowingly broken so many laws on data and data protection. Yet they expect people to accept this law breaking on their private and personal data.
All this being done, the card being spread all over services people avail of. All this while they had the DPC’s draft report stating the illegality of this card. What is becoming clearer by the day is that FG don’t care about legalities. This card was going to be forced on the citizens of Ireland one way or the other. What was, we were told, a card to ensure SW payments went to the right people, to stop fraud, was and is being morphed into a Biometric National ID Card. This was always the intention.
The potential to abuse this card and the data the government had collected and compiled on people is Orwellian.
@Dave Doyle:
It would also bring us into line with most european countries…
Don’t you have a mandatory bulgarian-id card?
@Tim Pot: Yes i do. It’s the LAW, i need one to live here, as does everyone. The difference is it’s legal, it complies with GDPR legislation. There’s no Biometric facial data contained on the card. I know what information is contained on it. There’s a legal basis for it.
The Irish Biometric National ID Card being forced on people is illegal, there’s no legal basis for it, except for its stated purpose as a card for SW purposes. The database it has compiled on people is illegal. It’s illegal to demand this card by government depts for services you are legally entitled to. It doesn’t comply with GDPR legislation. No due process was carried out to bring such an instrument into the country. It is being rolled out by stealth across all government services. Your private and personal data is shared around by government depts and bodies against GDPR legislation.
There’s a huge difference between the PSC and other countries national id cards. The PSC is illegal to use as an ID card, it doesn’t comply with GDPR, the database it holds on people is illegal. There’s no legislation for it, no debate, the legal and constitutional issues surrounding bringing in such an instrument have been ignored.
So, NO it doesn’t “bring us into line with most european countries”.
@Dave Doyle: You still haven’t told me how the government can control my life if I have this card.
@Dave Doyle: how can you possibly claim it’s being rolled out in stealth. The existence of this very article disproves your claim. Unfortunately it then undermines the rest of your claims
@Tim Pot: you’re confusing a national ID card that was brought in after debate in Bulgaria’s government (admittedly, during the time of the Soviet-oriented People’s Republic of Bulgaria)and is a card that is transparent in its implementation and fully adheres to Bulgaria’s laws. What you, Tim Pot, are advocating is a form of national ID card that’s not a national ID card (weird, right?) and that was brought in without discussion, breaks the law and is completely haphazard in its implementation and lacks any sort of transparency. The two are not the same thing at all.
@Vocal Outrage: Told it was for one thing and being made compulsory for more services and even though they had the DPC’s draft report they still considered rolling it out for more services. That’s stealth.
@Andrew Nolan: Just look at how it’s being rolled out across all services and the illegal database being held on people. If you cannot see 1984 coming down the line you must be blind.
@Dave Doyle: So you can’t tell me.
@Andrew Nolan: So you’re blind to reality.
@Dave Doyle: Just asking for a straight answer
@Dave Doyle: the card has not been deemed illegal. The database to confirm the details and the length of retention is in legal dispute with two different legal teams claiming different things. The attorney general believes it is legal. A judge will have to decide. The photo is a photo nothing special there is no extra biometric data on the card. Some people claim a photo is biometric which is also waiting legal confirmation. You are claiming all photos of a face are biometric data which means all photo ID is biometric.
@Dave Doyle: I think your definition of ‘Stealth’ must have been translated from your Bulgarian dictionary, as that isn’t the definition of stealth. If it was being introduced stealthily the government wouldn’t keep announcing it’s to be used for more and more services.
I too disagree with the introduction of the PSC, but if you start throwing illegitimate arguments around it undermines those of us making legitimate arguments. Unless of course your are stealthily working for the government and that’s your aim
This is what happens when your country is under corrupt corporate governance
@james r: The next option in line are a party who had/have an armed wing of terrorists who believe in a magic money tree. Not very enticing as an option.
@Peter D W Clancy: No , think next ones will be anti imagration , anti EU Well they get my vote if there is.
@Peter D W Clancy: History has recorded that FFG both had armed wings and that more recently, FF totally bankrupted the country. That would make an SF coalition a very attractive proposition when their joint holiness’s, Varadkar and Martin finally condescend to the peoples demand for elections.
That’s actually a good idea
@John Murt: No it’s not.
@Dave Doyle: yes it is
@John Murt: makes sense having ID to avail of free medical and prescription services paid for my the state
Sure you can use it with our electronic voting machines. And vote “not one red cent” to Frankfurt. blah blah blah it’s illegal now feck off.
Isn’t this just a great little country
So why is the gov trying to sneak in the PSC/ID car by the back door? Call a referendum on it at the same time as the election next year.
Gov erps paraphrasing Joseph Goebbels circa 1933 “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” is reason enough to ditch the card.
If I recall from the media reports during the week the report was classified and only issued to Dept of Social Welfare, further, they had to get special permission from the data protection commissioner to share it with DPER.
Possibly the Dept. Of Health weren’t aware of the detail of the data protection commissioner’s report when making this suggestion? Although, there is a mention of inter departmental high level meetings, you’d imagine the Secetaries General from Social Welfare and DPER would have said ‘listen folks, can’t go into details, but you might want to back off considering the PSC card’
@Vocal Outrage: the report was released to the public. It’s available to anyone.
@Chin Feeyin: please read the whole article before commenting, and maybe get a calendar. Report was only released to the public this week, Tue 17 Sept, these discussions were happening in June. On my calendar June still comes before September.
@Vocal Outrage: The draft Report was the Report that DPC had marked confidential.
I’d say now that Government well aware of findings!
@Nuala Mc Namara: the full report was only issued to Govt in mid august, so hence, in June was still the restricted, and august also comes after June in the calendar
@Vocal Outrage: Government aware since especially since October 2017 when DPC initiated the PSC investigation that there were concerns so ample time to check issues around legality, processing,retention of personal data etc.
In March 2018 the RSA stated that PSC not necessary for driver license applications. Transport official had received advice verbally from AG that requirement that applicants to need PSC for drivers licence applications did NOT have a legal basis!!As AG advises Government ,it is reasonable to assume that Government at least aware in March 2018 re legal concerns!
In the Dail,outside legal advice was mentioned,( AG wasn’t mentioned)but Government wont publish it!
@Nuala Mc Namara: concerns, not advise. I’d also query your belief about the AGs advice to the RSA over the driving license, considering the current advice from the AG appears to be the complete opposite
@Vocal Outrage: Journal article 21/1/19 Timeline -The PSC Saga: note date entry 27/3/18!
As for concerns V advise: wouldn’t any reasonable member of the public expect that any concerns that the Data Commissioner had re the PSC processing,sharing, retention of their personal data would have robust legislation re same and that these concerns were taken seriously?
She also has now issued legally binding findings that Government said they are going to ignore yet couldn’t respond within the month or so they had to appeal her findings eg why couldn’t they respond with the legal advice they got?Do you not find that baffling?
Why defy those DPC findings knowing enforcement proceedings will be issued with further costs to the State?Not only could members of the public sue but could enforcement proceedings be taken by EU also?
Why not accept the independent DPC findings and have proper robust legislation re the PSC re processing and retention of people’s personal data?What is preventing that?At moment only DEASP allowed under legislation.
You should read the very comprehensive 172 page DPC Report.Note also that’s just Module 1 Report!
“…were told to look at….”
This isn’t a story at all.
@Chin Feeyin: Oh yes it is
Look over there!!
time for change…how about a public services tattoo …
Will the troika ever come back and run the country sort out the next in line on their list , which what ,poltians pay ,the legal institution pay ,civil servants pay for a start ends the cute one claimed he was doing us a favour getting rid of them ,he was all his friends ,bear grills should of left him disolete some where ,taste of his own medicine,as for for star of David card , don’t even rattle my cage
@Gerard Heery: I rather not rattle your cage, you’re already speaking in riddles with a tenuous grasp on english, who knows what it’ll be like if someone did
@Vocal Outrage: the pretext changes after I press the post button as I notice in other peoples tweets as well all I’m really saying Ireland is not capable of self governance no party is able to run the country without its own hidden agendas and how they start taxing the rich
Ok. I’m going to keep flogging this here horse…
But what if it’s dead, boss?
Shut up and keep flogging it…
Look its simple offer any one who uses tge card 5 Euro , we Irish can be bought abd its usuly about 5 Euro.
Why are people so paranoid about the card is it a case that your worried the government will be spying on you well that’s already happening via your phone, broadband connection taxes you pay in many ways. Personally I’ve no issue with the card I think all services should be amalgamated onto one card age ID drivers license medical card dole card passport. Just have one official piece of plastic in the wallet rather than 3/4 and carrying the card should be made compulsory.
@In my opinion: there is a concerted effort by certain people to stoke up fear about it. Whether it is out of genuine concern or just stupidity is the question. The media headlines are often misleading with many people reading the headline only making reasonable people think something is going on that isn’t. There are people actively lying and spreading misinformation and I for one cannot figure out their motivation. There are individuals here claiming the gardai have access to the DEASP data and access to community CCTV which is an incredible lie.
It is a shared ID database yet people think that means all information from all agencies is now stored in one DB which is simply not true. Again not sure if this is genuine concern with a lack of understanding or just paranoid thoughts.
@In my opinion: Its perfectly reasonable to have concerns re personal data processing,retention and security and whether it is deemed lawful or not by the independent DPC!
@Nuala Mc Namara: yes perfectly sensible to ask questions and get legal clarification. The issue is the DPC are dealing with very new laws which are being questioned all across Europe. It is not as simple as what ever they say is the law, they interpreted the law one way while the attorney general sees it another way. This is what happens in law especially with new laws.
@Craic_a_tower: You obviously haven’t read the 172 page DPC Report!
The DPC based her findings on legislation that predates GDPR!!
The RSA stopped requesting need for PSC in March last year to renew driver’s license, official has received verbal advice from AG that requirement for PSC to renew driver’s license was NOT legal!
In the Dail referred to outside legal advice not AG and refused to release it!
@Nuala Mc Namara: that is the use of PSC for drivers license not the card itself
@Craic_a_tower: DPC found the law only legally allows DEASP to requirePSC to access welfare.
The requirement for needing to produce a PSC for driving license applications was deemed illegal,that’s what I said.
According to Citizens Information website:’DPC found that the’ processing of personal data by DEASP(when issuing a PSC) for the purposes of transactions between individuals and other specified public bodies(bodies other than the DEASP) does NOT have a legal basis under applicable data protection laws.’
‘The DPC also found that DEASP retains documents and information provided by people applying for PSCs longer than necessary.Under Data Protection laws, personal data should be held no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which their their personal data is processed.’
Citizens Information website is provided by the statutory independent body is the Citizens Information Board which comes under the remit of Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection!
@In my opinion: it’s not really paranoia if they’re out to get you. Although having said that you cannot, legally, no matter who you are, under GDPR, retain a person’s information indefinitely without breaching a bunch of laws. Likewise you have to be able to prove when a person requests it that you have deleted their data completely and utterly. The Government are not above GDPR, which is what they seem to think they are with all this PSC lark. They go after the likes of Facebook for this exact stuff, yet don’t think about it for the systems they try to bring in. And for the record I’d be all in favour of a properly implemented PSC, not this load of crap they’ve tried to force in.
@Craic_a_tower: From Irish Times:
Mission creep
The latest formal government suggestion for PSC mission creep is to force social media companies such as Facebook to require its use when someone creates an account.
As a method of increasing personal accountability, Minister of State for Older People Jim Daly has written to the EU suggesting that the PSC could be used to verify ID when someone creates an account on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
This is a really, really bad idea (and not just because innumerable human rights activists and their network of family, friends and colleagues require social media anonymity as a life-and-death matter).
A PSC-cum-national ID card link to personal social media accounts makes a defining bridge between an individual and all their social media data – likely to be highly personal – which exposes even more linked, sensitive data in any breach.
The rules of democracy do not apply to FG, the laws of the land do not apply to FG, the responsibilities mandated by their roles and our constitution do not apply to FG.
I hope people remember what 100 years of FFG has turned our political class into, not that it took anything near that length of time. Gangsters living next to bankers.
Running around in circles playing for time. FG are useless. Please change government.
Great idea one card for everything move on great idea . Nothing to hide nothing to worry about .
@Declan Byrne: Ireland could be open to substantial lawsuits by ignoring DPC findings through Irish courts or ECJ.Infringment proceedings could potentially be issued against Ireland re data protection.
@Declan Byrne: FG done their best to hide the illegality of the card. Still try and deny it. They lied about it and hid what they intended to use it for.
Ridiculous stupid and everyone will not acceptable PSC with medical card and PSC illegal
@Brian Flavin:
I’m glad the caption clarified that is a ‘giant’ psc card he is holding up!
Next they will be outsourcing the Department of Welfare???
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