Public Services Card
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Louise O'Reilly (SF), Dublin Fingal West

The Minister stated that people can put their date of birth on it if they wish and that everything will be absolutely opt-in all the time but that is not true. The moment something like this is brought in, it becomes compulsory. Those aged over 65 have an entitlement to access the free travel scheme but they must have this card to do so. If people do not want to have the card, they are simply locked out of the scheme. When the Minister says that something will be voluntary, such as the public services card, it is not the case. The only thing people are volunteering to do is not have their lawful entitlement to the free travel scheme if they are over 65. Does the Minister understand why people are naturally suspicious about this? In the Minster’s answers, he talked a lot about it being voluntary and people opting in. In truth, however, the PSC is no longer voluntary, particularly for those over 65. People do not have the choice to opt in.
We are doing pre-legislative scrutiny on the social welfare Bill. It is a fairly big piece of legislation and changes to the PSC are contained within it. I am putting the Minister on notice that those changes will be resisted by me and the Opposition more broadly because there is no trust when it comes to the holding and collection of data.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30