Gardaí using PSC for vetting forms despite law

An Garda Síochána has been including the public services card (PSC) as an identification option on Garda vetting forms used by businesses across the country, in apparent violation of social welfare law.

As part of the vetting process, mandated by legislation enacted between 2012 and 2016, gardaí register affected organisations as requiring successful vetting for staff before they can commence employment.

Vetting is required for any employees who may be working with either children or vulnerable adults.

On foot of this, the relevant organisation requires applicants to fill out vetting forms. But before that can happen the prospective employee is expected to verify their identity to the satisfaction of the gardaí.

This is carried out via a points system, with 100 points required to reach the relevant threshold, which in practice requires a form of identification and an acceptable verification of address. The PSC represents the joint most valuable form of identification per the live vetting forms, at 80 points, along with a driving licence.

However, the list of specified bodies under legislation which can request a PSC in exchange for a service is restricted to State and quasi-State institutions. Childcare or youth coaching organisations, two of the largest cohorts for which Garda vetting is required, are not present on the list.

Under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, any enterprise seeking to request the card as a form of identification which is not on a list of specified bodies is committing an offence, with a penalty upon indictment of €13,000 or three years in prison, or both.

Both An Garda Síochána and the Department of Social Protection were contacted by the Irish Examiner to ask if they were aware of the apparent legislative breach, and whether or not Garda vetting forms would be altered. No response had been received from either party at the time of publication.

“The reassurances given by Government that the uses of the card can be effectively curtailed are hard to give credence to when it’s blatantly being used as an ID and the gardaí are not supposed to be able to ask for it,” said Antoin Ó Lachtnain, director with Digital Rights Ireland.

Last week, mobile phone carrier GoMo pulled the PSC as an identification option on its website after concerns were raised with the Department of Social Protection.

Mr Ó Lachtnain said he considers the issue of Garda vetting “more egregious” than that of GoMo as “this is the Garda”.

“GoMo have the excuse of simply not knowing any better, but you would expect An Garda Síochána to know what the rules are,” he said. “There has to be a strategy for this kind of thing, with a carefully considered solution, and the PSC is not that solution.”