Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 section 263

Public services card

Section 263 provides for the issuing, content, and use of the Public Services Card.

• The Minister may issue a Public Services Card to any person for transactional purposes, but only after being satisfied as to the person's identity.
• The card displays the holder's name, PPS number, photograph, signature, issue number, expiry date, and any other prescribed information; it also stores additional data electronically (including date and place of birth, sex, nationality, and former surnames of the holder and the holder's mother).
• A cardholder may request access to the electronically encoded information on their card and should receive it within 28 days where practicable; the cardholder must produce the card when asked to do so by a specified body for transactional purposes.
• It is a criminal offence for anyone other than the cardholder (or their authorised representative), a specified body acting for transactional purposes, or a person whose transaction with a specified body involves the PPS number on the card, to use or attempt to use a Public Services Card.