The Government says it will publish a report on the Public Services Card once it has fully considered the document and 'properly prepared' a response.
A report from the Data Protection Commission was submitted to the Government last Thursday, with a summary of the findings released by the commission.
The watchdog said it has no issue with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP) processing personal data on the card so that it can be used to claim social welfare.
However, it objected strongly to the information being processed by other state agencies - a situation which the commission said is in breach of data protection laws.
In a statement today, the department denied that it has had the report for a year - saying it had instead received a draft, 'strictly confidential' report last August.
Officials are said to have submitted a "very detailed response" to the draft report, after receiving advice from the Attorney General.
While acknowledging that there have been calls for last week's report to be released quickly, the department claims it is a "comprehensive report and requires significant attention".
Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty TD argued: "Both myself and my Department take very seriously the findings of the Data Protection Commission and the good work it does. For that reason it is important that bodies that are subject to findings by the Commission give very careful consideration to those findings.
"Such careful consideration is also necessary in order to be fair to the Commission and to ensure that when we do speak that the public hears a properly prepared response."
She added: "As soon as our consideration of this final report is complete, the Department will publish its response along with the report and any other relevant information on its website and I will speak then at greater length on the matter."
PSC findings
In their statement on the report, the Data Protection Commission said they'd told Minister Doherty's department to contact various agencies to tell them the card can no longer be mandatory.
The commission said state bodies other than DEASP "cannot insist that a person who does not already hold a PSC must obtain one as a pre-condition of accessing public services provided by that body".
The DEASP was given six weeks to come up with plan to make changes to the PSC scheme.
However, it was given only 21 days to implement two measures - including stopping all processing of personal data related to PSCs being issued for purposes involving public bodies other than the department itself.
