IRELAND’S Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has revealed that Irish residents applying for a passport will need to present their Public Services Card from late next year.
The card was introduced in 2012 and is already required when applying for a driving test in Ireland.
But Minister Coveney confirmed this morning that from late 2018, the identification will further be needed for Irish residents over the age of 18 to apply for a passport.
The change will not apply to overseas Irish citizens applying through a foreign passport office.
Speaking on Morning Ireland today, Mr Coveney explained: “The whole point in having a Public Services Card is that there is a single point of information so that people can access public services whether that’s a driver’s licence or whether it’s a passport.”
Mr Coveney said it will take “some time” for the Passport Office to bring in the new requirement, but that he expects it to be introduced in around 12 months.
The Irish Council of Civil Liberties has expressed concern over the new system and some legal experts have branded it a method of introducing national ID cards “by stealth”.
Last week, Ireland’s Green Party accused the government of “bringing in mandatory identity cards for Irish citizens”, while Fianna Fáil called for a debate on the issue.
Responding to claims that the Public Services Card amounts to mandatory identification, Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty said it shouldn’t be “too much to ask” for Irish residents to use one.
“We believe that it’s not too much to ask people to authenticate who you are, so that we can give you fast and efficient public service,” she told Newstalk Breakfast.
People are “not obliged to have a card”, she said. “Nobody will drag you kicking and screaming to have one.”
Some 2.75 million Public Services Cards have been issued so far in Ireland, where it is most often used for getting social welfare payments and drivers licences.
Following changes brought in in March this year, all first-time passport applicants who are resident in Ireland must now supply a photo of the card.
Non-resident passport applicants are exempt from the new measures, but residents whose adult passport was issued before 2005 and has since been lost, stolen or damaged must also provide a copy.
