Department to defy deadline to delete Public Services Card data

The Data Protection Commissioner is set to respond by the end of this week to the Department of Social Protection over its decision to challenge the commissioner’s rulings on the Public Services Card.

A spokesperson for the commissioner said it “notes” the statement by the department challenging those findings, but declined to say whether or not the DPC would be meeting with officials from the department to discuss them.

“I can confirm that we received correspondence from the department last night and we further note the public statements made by the department,” said the spokesperson. “We will be responding to the department by the end of the week.”

With regard to the DPC’s contentious report, the spokesperson said it is the commissioner’s view that the final report “should be published immediately in the public interest”. It had been speculated the department, the only body with authority to publish the report, would decline to do so.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty yesterday said that her department would be publishing the report, together with its response, “immediately following further engagement” with the DPC.

The department said it would be “continuing to operate” the PSC system, having satisfied itself that to accept the DPC’s findings would be “inappropriate and potentially unlawful”.

The DPC’s decision, delivered on August 15 after a two-year-long investigation, said the department must delete 3.2m historical data records it maintains on cardholders, and that requiring people to hold a PSC to access State services such as passport applications must cease within 21 days. The deadline for that ruling is today.

A number of State portals, such as passport applications, have declined as yet to indicate whether or not they would be complying with the DPC’s decision.

Access to the new National Childcare Scheme will be entirely dependent upon the PSC and its online counterpart MyGovID until at least the new year, when postal applications will be accepted for the first time.

Ms Doherty said that while her department holds the “highest respect for the DPC and the important work that they do”, “unfortunately we don’t accept their findings and will challenge them”.

That is in stark contrast to previous pronouncements by the Government.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told RTÉ on August 16 that he “expected” that the DPC’s findings would be complied with, while one week later, Ms Doherty said she would be publishing the report in full, something civil liberties organisations had been seeking for 12 months, once its findings had been “fully considered”.

Yesterday, Ms Doherty said that her “

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That legal advice had been delivered by the Attorney General and an as yet unknown external counsel. The minister said she would not be publishing the legal advice, however.

Liam Herrick, executive director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, described the latest development as “bizarre”.

“This isn’t something to sit down and have a cup of tea about now. They are findings. If you don’t accept them, you can challenge them. That’s a nuclear option and highly risky and regrettable,” he said.