Government Digital Wallet: Your questions answered

New EU legislation requires every EU member state to introduce a secure digital identity wallet. Digital wallets are already in use in some other jurisdictions and can contain different forms of documents, like a driving licence.

The Government Digital Wallet must meet EU technical, security, interoperability and certification requirements and while its issuance is voluntary for citizens, it is mandatory for the State to provide.

The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport has responsibility for implementing Regulation (EU) 910/2014 amended by (EU) 2024/1183 known collectively as eIDAS 2 that requires a European Digital Identity (EUDI) wallet. It should be available in each member state, so citizens can use it to authenticate themselves, store personal credentials, share verified information across borders and sign with legal validity.

Mandatory acceptance by public bodies is due to commence by the end of 2026 and by private service providers that conduct strong customer authentication (for example, banks and payment service providers) by the end of 2027.

Other private service providers may choose to support EUDI wallets for access to their services and sharing personal credentials.

The testing phase is critical to supporting the development of the Government Digital Wallet programme.

It will educate the public and other stakeholders on the value, safety and workings of the wallet. It will also give people an opportunity to contribute to the final design and the prioritisation of future credentials.

The testing phase will help stress-test the infrastructure and the support mechanisms for the Digital Wallet.

We want to ensure that people can contribute to developing a wallet that works for them.

Work is ongoing to transpose the eIDAS 2 legislation and establish the necessary governance and regulatory oversight for issuance of an EUDI Wallet in Ireland.

Launching a consultation and testing at this stage enables us to engage with the public to understand what they would like from the Government Digital Wallet. We can also collect feedback on how they would like to use it and test some of its functionality (on the legal basis of informed consent) to inform both the technical development and the legislative work.

This is a consultation and testing phase informing both the statutory and legislative development of the Government Digital Wallet in preparation for a national legislative basis to be established for issuance of the Government Digital Wallet live and at scale to the public.

The Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation is responsible for technical development of the Digital Wallet.

The Digital Wallet is a core component of Ireland’s emerging digital public infrastructure as part of the Digital Public Service Plan 2030.

As a building block, it will facilitate the digitalisation of public services by providing people with a secure, convenient way to store and use verified digital credentials through a mobile application linked to their MyGovID account.

The Department of Social Protection is the owner of the MyGovID identity scheme, which provides a safe and proven route to securely access the wallet in a way that will satisfy all relevant requirements under the eIDAS 2 regulation.

The government will not track or record any data that is stored in the Digital Wallet. The user is the only person who can see their data, which is securely stored locally on their mobile phone.

When officially launched to the public, the wallet is expected to support a broad range of digital documents across sectors such as travel, education, health and banking amongst others. This will streamline how individuals access public services and facilitate greater integration of services across government.

The introduction of such functionality will depend on the inclusion of the necessary legal provisions in national legislation, particularly the upcoming eIDAS legislation, led by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.

The Digital Wallet operates on the principles of privacy-by-design ensuring that you only need to share the data that is needed for delivery of a support or service.