Clause 4 - Electoral identity card
Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Bill
6:45 pm
Lady Lady Hermon (North Down, UUP)
The point is that we have just heard that the card may have an electronic chip built into it. My difficulty in accepting that derives from clause 4:
``an electoral identity card becomes current on the date of its issue and ceases to be so on the expiry of the period of 10 years''.
Is the Minister telling us that after 11 years the technology will be available to put an electronic chip into all forms of identification? I understood from the earlier part of the debate that he was confident that the architecture and software would be in place for 2003. Is it his intention that electoral identity cards, the first of which will be valid for 10 years, should be issued at some expense—perhaps considerable expense—by the electoral office, but there will be no attempt to put in an electronic chip before the 10 years have expired?