Statement to Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development, Dr Elizabeth Farries

2.06.2026. Last month, Dr Elizabeth Farries presented a statement to the Joint Oireachtas Committee during its pre-legislative scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Social Welfare and Other Matters Bill 2026.

Dr Farries queried the committee, in particular asking why the government

• seeks to expand use of the Public Services Card (PSC) given that the Data Protection Commission’s findings regarding the illegality of its biometric infrastructure remain before the courts
• neglects gold standard data protection practices, including full cooperation with its independent regulatory authority
• shifts from its earlier narratives emphasising unsubstantiated welfare fraud costs concerns among vulnerable populations to a position that now presents the PSC as a mechanism for supporting those same populations

Given the normalisation of identity cards like the PSC across the EU, there is now a long evidentiary window into the risks of universal identifiers these identity schemes enable, in particular in relation to their biometric surveillance capacities, and especially for vulnerable populations. Dr Farries suggested to the committee that Ireland, even still, has an opportunity to pioneer good practice in this area.

Read the full statement below