Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection @ReginaDo is up before the Oireachtas Committee on her dept in the next few mins to talk some #PSC. Her first appearance since the whole farrago broke in August. Watch it here oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-…
@ReginaDo Nothing particularly new in the opening statement, tho it does push the PSC's genesis back to December 1993 and the Government approval of "an integrated social services system", which is fairly emblematic of the strategy of legitimising the card by dint of decades of development
Department is still waiting on @DPCIreland enforcement notice says the Minister. When that happens it will be "carefully considered" before "appropriate actions" are taken. "This may include a referral to the courts". Short'n'sweet #PSC
@DPCIreland Still no white smoke on that enforcement. The Department officially said it wouldn't be accepting the DPC's findings on 3rd September
@DPCIreland Willie O'Dea wants to know what the AG's advice was, why other depts have pulled back on using the card on a mandatory basis, and what the minister's views are on the new National Childcare Scheme using it soleley, for at least 2 months
@DPCIreland .@willieodeaLIVE also points out the age-old point that no business case was ever made for the €68 million project
Minister replies legal advice came from in house legal team, AG, and a third party. She won't be revealing it. "All the relevant legislation empowers us to do exactly what we've been doing"
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE "It’s not true that you can’t get a driving licence without a PSC," the minister says. This is a bit skewed, given that definitely WAS the plan
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE Doherty says she isn't being "cagey" over the enforcement notice. "It's 3.5 months later," she says. "After being given 7 days to act, then 21 days, and 6 weeks." It's a fair point.
"I'm not being obstructive, I simply don't know what will be in it," she says
"I'm not being obstructive, I simply don't know what will be in it," she says
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE "This is simple case of two people interpreting legislation in a different way. I am doing my job and the DPC is doing hers," Doherty says. It's a point that the DPC should be more of an authority on data protection than a government minister, you might think
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE John Brady is asking about the report into the PSC's biometrics, due before the end of the year. Will be interesting if that timeline is met given the protracted nature of enforcement on the initial report
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE Wants to know if the Minister honestly believes her challenge will have no effect on the regulation of the tech data giants based in Ireland. "How far are you prepared to go Minister?"
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE He also asks for the formal QUESTIONS asked of the Attorney General. This is an interesting and recurring theme. The questions shouldn't be exempt from disclosure in theory.
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE Brady asks how, when seemingly every data protection professional in Ireland seems wholly sceptical of the processing related to the card, the department chooses to discount this
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE Ooh, it just got interesting. The Minister tells Brady he should ask Shane Ross what legal advice he got on the card before pulling the requirement to have one to get a driving licence. She says Ross certainly didn't ask the same questions she did.
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE "How far will you go Minister?" Brady asks. "We'll go so far as it takes to vindicate our position"
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE Hold on, the Minister now says she didn't ask the AG any formal questions. Then how did she get her formal advice, on which this whole challenge is predicated? #PSC
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE Joan Collins is asking if anything of the DPC's findings has been implemented. The answer, before it's given, is no, the Department has been quite clear on that
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE Doherty: "At no stage was there ever any indication, any anything, to give the idea this would be a national identity card by any door." She says it’s only a small minority who are worried about that. "I would abhor anyone being stopped on the road or anywhere looking for ID."
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE The Minr an expert at saying things that aren't true with authority. She says it has always been possible to get a passport without a #PSC. That is simply not true for first time applicants for three years between 2016 and 2019. I've dealt with multiple examples of people denied
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE She doesn't know if payments are backdated or not for the new childcare scheme. They aren't. She should know this
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE John Curran asks a good question - if the Department had ever thought about amending legislation to bring clarity to the situation. The Minister obfuscates on the response. The initial 2005 act has of course been amended so many times it's basically headspinning
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE This is getting ridiculous. The Minister tells Joan Collins that you "always could" apply for things like passports without a PSC. To recap, the Government spent years, betwen 3 and 6 years, trying to make this not the case. Does she simply not know what she's saying is wrong?
@DPCIreland @willieodeaLIVE Interesting. Alice Mary Higgins asks why all supporting documentation re #PSC applicants is held onto, something the DPC mandated must stop.
Doherty says this stems from instruction from the ombudsman's office stating that DEASP couldn't stand over welfare appeal decisions without that documentation, "so we could use it for validation over queries made in the future"
Onto the thorny issue of the free travel pass and data being shared between DEASP and the NTA (and others). "It's inaccurate to say we know details of people's travel pass usage," Doherty says. How else would we pay CIE, GoHop (GoAhead?) etc, she asks
Heated between O'Dea and Doherty. He says the Minr is disingenuous answering questions she wasn't asked. Cites the issue of school transport appeals. "We have never insisted that school transport appeals need a #PSC," she says. "That's the direction it was travelling in," he says
O'Dea reiterates Brady's "valid point" of reputational damage to the DPC by dint of what DEASP is doing. It smacks of "if you disagree with the DPC you can go to the Irish Government and they'll see you right".
"The enforcement notice will arrive Minister, you can be sure of that," he says, in reference to Doherty earlier saying "we'll deal with the enforcement notice, when it arrives"
Minister admonishes O'Dea for "personal insults", says she won't "stoop so low". Shifts responsibility for #PSC onto O'Dea's Fianna Fail government from 1998. There is rarely love lost between these two on this topic. Today is more of the same
"There you go again throwing out anecdotes in order to make yourself feel smart. I don’t know how you used to conduct business but we certainly don’t do it (this way),” Doherty tells O'Dea
Very, very telling interjection from Chair John Curran. For first time points out inaccuracy of saying it was never intended to make the card mandatory, citing the farrago involving the RSA and Dept Transport from Feb 2018. "There was no other alternative," Curran says
"Online," the Minister says. This is untrue. "No," says Curran. "There was no other alternative".
"As I said before, I don't have the responsibility to tell DFA etc how to direct themselves," says Doherty. She's quite right. This is Paschal Donohoe and his senior civil servants' responsibility.
"There has been a charge made that we were trying to force people down a tunnel, that never happened," says Doherty. There is no part of that sentence that's accurate, put mildly
Very testy exchange between Brady and Doherty. She demands he retracts accusations made. He says he will retract nothing. You'll have to forgive me I missed the exact nature of what the squabble was over
