Irish Council for Civil Liberties (Irish Council for Civil Liberties)

Lobbying Organisation Irish Council for Civil Liberties

Date published 21 Sep, 2026

Relevant Matter Legislation

Public Policy Area Social Protection

Period 1 May. 2026 to 31 Aug. 2026

Specific Details Raise concerns about the Social Welfare and Other Matters Bill in relation to the Public Services Card

Intended results Raise ICCL's concerns re Head 7 of the bill containing the potential to turn the Public Services into a national ID, and that it does not resolve underlying issues re the collection of biometric data and instead risks compounding them.

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Olga Cronin

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Meeting (1)

Meeting with Sinn Fein TD Louise O'Reilly in the Oireachtas to discuss the Social Welfare and Other Matters Bill, given the ongoing legal proceedings concerning the PSC before the High Court, and the Data Protection Commission’s findings last June regarding the unlawful use of facial recognition and the “negligent” large-scale collection of biometric data of 70% of the population.

Email (1)

Follow-up email to Frey Coogan from Sinn Fein TD in Louise O'Reilly's office after our meeting on May 7 to share a letter sent by the previous Executive Director of the ICCL in 2020 to Oireachtas members which linked to a briefing on the findings of UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Professor Philip Alston in respect of the Public Services Card.

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Louise O'Reilly TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)