Social Welfare, Civil Registration and Charities (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-09-22 ============================================================ Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth As I follow my two colleagues, the Minister will have got the idea that we have a particular problem with section 8, and why would we not? Anyone who had needed State services in the last while knows that, in order to access them, particularly online, a public services card is required. We need to just knock the idea that it is voluntary on its head straight away. We know there are huge issues. For want of a better term, how the State came upon something like 70% of the biometric information and data was illegal. I would like that point answered. There is a real issue. Deputy Ward spoke about his driver licence. I can speak about my own young fellow and his permit. He is not driving at the moment, which can be a nuisance to me. Some of that delay is down to him but there is also the fact that there was a requirement for a public services card. There has to be a greater element of truth around the fact that this is becoming a requirement, an almost requirement or something where the State has made things so hard that it may as well be a requirement for State services. With many of the people who come into our constituency offices, we tell them that is the easiest way to do it. If what the Department is looking for is a State or national ID, then it should be clear about that. There is an issue about the information and how it is contained. Deputy O’Reilly spoke about how we had no level of security over what is required. We have all spoken about our own information and the data analytics being carried out by firms that are interested in making money. There is a better knowledge of GDPR and data privacy. When the State has this information, we need to ensure that it has been obtained legally, is operated correctly and is protected with a sufficient level of security, which I do not think is currently the case. Similar to the point raised by Deputy Ward, I have a very specific ask around additional needs payments. I have dealt with an issue for a number of constituents, some who have got over the line and others who have not, who have had boilers that went kaput and they did not have the money or time to undergo a full Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, warmer homes retrofit or whatever. Previously, they would have been able to apply for housing for older people supports from the local authority but now the only thing you can get if you want an oil or gas boiler is a refurbished boiler. I challenge anyone to go out and try to find one of those. I would say it would be very difficult. I would even guess it was impossible. The service was provided in particular for those who were older and who would not have had the money to pay for this or to do the full retrofit required. We all know the best thing that can be done for a lot of older houses is to ensure they are proofed from the point of view of decent windows, doors and insulation. It does not always make great sense to introduce things like air-to-water pumps or renewable forms of energy. We know the necessity of ensuring that the house is airtight. My office is wasting time making multiple applications that fail just so people can look to apply for an additional needs payment. I have a parliamentary question in to the Minister. I also have a parliamentary question in to the Minister for housing on the reverse. It is an issue that needs to be addressed. We get that in a perfect scenario we would be dealing with brand-new builds that are airtight and looking at air-to-air-type heating systems that work perfectly in those sets of circumstances, although that is very difficult to do from a retrofit point of view. The fact is that a huge number of people do not have the resources to outlay that money, and at this point in time a resource that was available to them previously is not available, whether that is through an additional needs payment or, as I said, through some of the supports that were available through the local authority. Between the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and the Minister for housing, it is something that needs to be addressed. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-22