Social Welfare, Civil Registration and Charities (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-09-22 ============================================================ Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo I thank all of the Deputies for their contributions, particularly those who serve on the joint committee. I thank Deputy O'Shea for chairing it and I thank the clerk and the team. I will respond to a number of the issues raised; a number of specific issues were also raised, about which I will engage with Deputies also. Over the years the Department has been asked why the PSC, which is State issued, cannot be used by a cardholder to prove identity if they wish to do so. Other Government documents, such as a passport or a driving licence, can be issued in this manner. This is why we are introducing the Bill; it is to give people the choice, if they wish, to use the PSC for this purpose. The public services card is a token that is issued on the completion of a safe registration process. It is the evidence of a substantial level of assurance of a person's identity. One of the benefits of the public services card is that it is available free of charge. There is no fee associated with getting or renewing a PSC. I am very mindful of the cost a person incurs when they need a passport or driving licence or need to renew either. We receive queries from cardholders and voluntary bodies, as well as from many people in this House, asking why it is not possible to use a PSC to verify a person's identity if that person chooses to do so. We get about 100 queries a month over the phone from individuals and various bodies asking if the PSC can be used as proof of identity. This does not include the informal queries that come through the Department's network. Cardholders who have expressed a wish to use their PSC to verify their identity for purposes such as opening a bank or credit union account or for utility contract purposes, often cannot afford another form of identity. To date, it has been an offence for those bodies to accept a PSC. These changes are to deal totally and purely with those situations where people want to use their PSC for identity purposes in the circumstances referred to. Clearly, it is for those individuals themselves to use it for themselves. The processing of personal data, including sensitive personal data, is already subject to clearly specified safeguards under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended, and in accordance with the GDPR. Additionally, my Department actively implements a range of oversight arrangements for the processing of all personal data held by the Department. The Department provides very clear information, including through our privacy statement, which is across publicly available information materials, and in communication to PSC cardholders. The proposed amendments do not alter these safeguards. They simply enable an individual to voluntarily use their PSC as proof of identity or age with non-specified bodies if they choose to do so. It remains the case that in law only specified bodies may request a PSC and non-specified bodies cannot request a PSC. In relation to the Data Protection Commission there are two inquiries into the processing of personal data in relation to the PSC. One has been completed and the other is before the courts, so I will not refer to it at this point. In its August 2019 decision, the Data Protection Commission found that the Department could only authenticate the identity of and issue a PSC to its own customers and not to anyone who wanted a PSC to transact with other public bodies. Subsequently, the commission accepted in December 2021 that the Department could continue to process personal data to authenticate the identity of and issue a PSC to any person who requested one and not just the customers of the Department of Social Protection. It remains the case, therefore, that we await the outcome of the other court case. I have listened carefully to the concerns raised today in relation to the PSC, but I again emphasise that today's amendment is a voluntary one that relates with giving people the capacity to use this card in respect of bodies currently not allowed to accept it. A couple of issues came up in relation to some specific things. Deputy Hayes raised the issue of data repositories and making them interoperable with other Departments. There are no proposals under this Bill to create any new interoperability arrangements beyond those that already exist in legislation. Again, as per the existing arrangements, the sharing and verification of PSC data are governed by the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended. There are no plans to provide access to PSC data to non-public entities. Any sharing of PSC data is governed by legislation and is restricted to the bodies authorised in law. Turning to the other provisions of the Bill, in relation to social welfare appeals I acknowledge the three Deputies here in the House. I am sure other Deputies raised queries as well, but the three social protection spokespersons, Deputies O'Reilly, Wall and O'Shea have constantly raised the issue of appeals with me. We are very focused on appeals. In relation to Deputy Ward's remarks on domiciliary care allowance appeals, we are very focused on that and we are dealing with it. It is often the case, however, that the appeal is not the same and extra information is provided. I want to get to a situation where we get clarity on what information is needed in the first place. We have put a particular focus on domiciliary care allowance appeals, and I thank the appeals officers. Turning to Deputy Wall's question, at the end of June 2026, the average processing time for social welfare appeals was 12 weeks. The average processing time for social welfare appeals in 2025 was 21.2 weeks. We will be dealing with a parliamentary question on this issue from Deputy O'Reilly on Thursday. Ahead of that, I will seek to get the breakdown of the schemes in order that we can identify any particular challenges. There should not be a situation where it takes a year. I am happy to engage with the Deputy around that issue. I thank the chief appeals officer and her team. They are continuing to monitor processing times, and we are making every effort to reduce the time taken to process an appeal. We will be able to engage on this issue more during parliamentary questions on Thursday. In relation to the issues around the charities legislation, no change in policy proposed as part of these amendments. Deputy Devlin raised this issue. The Charities (Amendment) Act 2024 revised and updated the existing charity legislation. When it is fully commenced, it will improve the ability of the Charities Regulator to conduct its statutory functions and to provide greater transparency, clarity and fairness in terms of the regulation of charities. This is something that the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, as the line Minister of State with responsibility in this area, has engaged on in the context of the delays involving charitable bodies and the Charities Regulator. We are focused on that. I assure Deputy Wall and all other Deputies that in the midst of the budget negotiations, we are very focused on child poverty. I secured a specific €320 million child poverty package for budget 2026. We are working on budget 2027. We worked yesterday on the school meals programme, which is a major initiative on the child poverty side. The Department of Social Protection is involved in the school meals programme in order to bring that element to people. I have tried to deal with as many of the issues as possible. I look forward to the engagement on Committee Stage. I thank the officials from the three Departments who worked on the Bill. --- 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