A new scheme by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA)to improve patient safety will see every person who uses health or social services allocated a unique identity number.
The Individual Health Identifiers - to be know as IHI's - are part of a new scheme to improve patient safety and cut down on mistakes.
This HIQA scheme will begin this year and will be piloted in three areas.
A unique number will be given to every person who uses the health service or social care services and it will stay with them for their lifetime.
The authority says by uniquely identifying people it is possible to reduce the number of mistakes that may occur, such as giving the patient incorrect medication or vaccinations, or admitting an incorrect patient for surgery.
The numbers will also provide data to help improve planning.
Health Minister Leo Varadkar said: "The Individual Health Identifier will be a major step forward in modernising our health service. It will allow us to follow patients and staff as they move through the health service in a way we currently can't."
"This will improve patient safety, reduce duplication and errors, and give us a huge amount of new data that we can use to make services more efficient and improve planning."
The IHI system will be operated by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and it will be responsible for safely storing all personal data.
It is currently undergoing an assessment to ensure all privacy risks are addressed.
Acting director of health information with HIQA, Rachel Flynn, told Newstalk Lunchtime that having a single identity number for each patient will reduce duplication and mistakes.
