Department yet to reply to Public Services Card info request

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has yet to reply to a request by the data protection commissioner for “certain information” regarding the new National Childcare Scheme and the Public Services Card, despite that request being made nearly two weeks ago.

A spokesperson for the commissioner confirmed to the Irish Examiner that no response of any description has yet been delivered. Eight days ago the department confirmed it had received a letter from the commissioner and said that a response would “issued shortly”.

The commissioner’s query concerns the requirement for all applicants to the new scheme to hold a public services card, which is perceived as being at odds with the commissioner ’s recent finding that mandating citizens to hold a PSC in order to access State services other than welfare is illegal.

The letter asked for confirmation of the accuracy of the commissioner’s interpretation of the new childcare scheme and use of the PSC, the legal basis on which the department was requiring the card, and the data protection impact assessment the department had carried out (a prerequisite under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation) with regard to the rollout of the scheme.

At the time of the letter’s issuance, the commissioner said it would wait for a response before deciding what further steps to take. Should those steps manifest as an investigation under GDPR, the Department of Children could be liable for fines of €1m, for data protection breaches.

The department has become something of an outlier since the publication of the commissioner’s report into the PSC on September 17, as the majority of other departments have since dropped their mandatory PSC requirement, despite Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty’s stated intention to legally challenge the commissioner’s rulings.

In September, Helen Dixon, the commissioner, told the Public Accounts Committee that, in ploughing ahead with its PSC requirement, the department was “totally at odds” with the findings of her report.

The National Childcare Scheme has been three years in gestation and was slated to go live from October 29 for online applications, with improved and new subsidies against the cost of childcare to become available for parents across the country.

Last week, Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone confirmed a “snag” in the system would lead to a delayed start for the scheme. The precise nature of that snag is not known. The scheme will not now begin the processing of applications until sometime in November.

The board of the new scheme is set to meet this week and confirm a revised start date. Previously, the Irish Examiner revealed the department had initially envisaged a second online portal for people without a PSC to apply for the scheme, which would have removed any GDPR concerns.

It was firmly overruled by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.