Sir, – The criticism for the Public Services Card project after a pension (non-contributory only) was cut off and other payments (jobseeker’s allowance and child benefits) were brought into question illustrates how strong the sense of entitlement to State payouts is in Ireland now. These payments are not funded by personal PRSI contributions, unlike the State contributory pension or job-seeker’s benefit; they are transfers from taxpayers to those in need of income support, based on a social democratic state model in which those on low income are supported by the rest, a model I subscribe to and, as a working taxpayer, also pay to maintain.
However, it is also reasonable that the taxpayers funding these supports are fully reassured that the payments go only to those entitled to them; systems to ensure this are the best way to maintain public support. The public services card is a long-overdue measure to achieve this and legitimate recipients of State benefits might consider that registering for this card is a reasonable recognition of that support.
Use of the card has and will be extended to other services such as driving licences, passports and libraries, and it will be useful in combating fraud in all these areas. All other European countries except the UK use such cards. Even Denmark, often cited as having no ID card, assigns a "personnummer" with the format DDMMYY-SSSS, where DDMMYY is the date of birth and SSSS is a sequence number, to all citizens and foreign workers to manage their interaction with state bodies; I still have my "personnummer" card from having worked there many years ago and it is to all intents an ID card. The new Sundhedskort ("health card") holds this number and additional citizen data, and it is virtually impossible to receive any form of government service without one. Ireland is the odd one out.
Of course there is potential for abuse or data loss in such systems, and Ireland must implement the safeguards adopted by our EU partners in rolling out the new card. – Yours, etc,
DONAL McGRATH,
Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Sir, – How will the Department of Social Protection persuade the little people, who Danny Healy-Rae believes are interfering with the road at Glenflesk, to apply for their Public Services Card? – Yours, etc,
PAT MONAHAN,
Cork.