A PROPOSAL to introduce a social services card to all citizens has been criticised by the office of the Data Protection Commissioner. A spokesman for Mr Fergus Glavey warned yesterday that it could eventually become a national identity card.
The Minister of State for Social Welfare, Mr Bernard Durkan, yesterday launched an inter Departmental report which sets out how an integrated social service system (ISSS) would improve the State's service. The report recommends the issuing of ID cards, possibly including a photograph, which would quote an individual's RSI, or social insurance, number.
The integrated system would also involve a central computer database and the computerisation of the general register office.
The spokesman for the data protection commissioner said the office sees the proposed introduction of this card as a "technocrat's vision of society where people are reduced to a number".
"There is a major issue of power at stake here. The State already holds data on people. The introduction of an RSI card at birth would make data matching very easy and a very detailed profile of someone's life could be called up - everything from parking fines, asthma attacks as a child to a criminal record. There must be a balance between privacy and state efficiency," he said.
The Minister said he would not be in favour of the card being used as a national identity card. Legislation would be introduced, perhaps in the next two years, to ensure that protections were in place, he said.
"I would see it as the property of the individual - something like a driver's licence or a passport. There would be no right to demand it." It would be a "single identifier" for all government Departments, used to call up details on an individual which have been gathered by the State including information on health, social welfare and housing. The present system, he said, was administratively difficult, repetitive and overly bureaucratic.
"There are pros and cons and the data protection commissioner has expressed concern about civil liberties being eroded. But a considerable amount of this information of a personal nature is already accessible."
Another key recommendation of the report is the setting up of a central database to record details for all means tests, with all state agencies having access to it.