Registrations conducted for Public Services Card despite investigation

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection was registering entire private companies for the Public Services Card despite an ongoing investigation into the project by the Data Protection Commissioner.

In some cases the site visits by Social Protection staff arose from officials becoming aware of prospective redundancies at the companies in question.

These mass registrations were conducted despite the threat of enforcement action from the Commissioner, who had informed the Department that the card was in breach of data protection law via an interim report of her investigation in August 2018.

On multiple occasions over the course of the first six months of 2019 Department officials visited small companies in the Munster region, as requested by the companies themselves - in documentation seen by the Irish Examiner - and registered their entire workforce for the PSC.

A mobile registration unit, operated by a specially-trained Social Protection official, was used for these registrations.

The Data Protection Commissioner’s investigation into the PSC began in Oct 2017. The final report was published last week - it detailed seven findings out of eight as being adverse to the project, in terms of legality and transparency.

“In situations where a significant number of employees in a firm are being made redundant, the Department may visit the company, in advance of the commencement of the redundancies, in order to take and process applications for jobseeker’s benefit or assistance,” a spokesperson for Social Protection explained.

“This may happen on foot of a request, from the company concerned, from the trade union representing the employees or because the local Intreo Centre has been made aware of the impending redundancies and is offering the service in order to ensure that the employees receive their entitlements as soon as they are made redundant,” they added.

The report of the Data Protection Commissioner mandated that the use of the PSC for State services other than welfare is illegal. The Commissioner also ruled that historical data pertaining to 3.2 million cardholders must be deleted by the Government.

Earlier this month, Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty said she intends to challenge the Commissioner’s findings, and that she would not be complying with them.