Public services card cost soars to €98m

The Department of Social Protection (DSP) has said a €30m hike in the cost of the public services card framework is attributable to a number of factors.

The Department of Social Protection (DSP) has said a €30m hike in the cost of the public services card framework is attributable to a number of factors, including the prior exclusion of Vat.

The card, which remains the subject of a court case involving the State and its own data protection regulator after the DPC declared the PSC to be illegal in 2019, was estimated as having cost €67.8m in its then-10 years of existence by DSP secretary general John McKeon in October 2019.