Debate contribution: Digital ID Scheme: Opposition

Debate contribution by Ms Cara Hunter on 11 November 2025.

MLA

Ms Cara Hunter

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

11 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Digital ID Scheme: Opposition

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5349560

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the motion and thank the Members to my left for tabling it. The SDLP will support the motion and the amendment. I firmly reject any form of digital ID. The debate is about freedom and its importance, and it is about the right of every citizen to exist without being monitored, logged and tracked by their own Government. I fiercely condemn the proposed introduction of the so-called BritCard, a digital ID scheme that has no place in a free society and certainly has no mandate or want from the people of Northern Ireland. Every citizen has the right to exist outside digital infrastructure or entirely off the grid if they wish. They have a right to personal liberty. The principles of autonomy and the right to privacy are sacred. Yet, under the guise of modernisation, the British Government now want to bring in a digital ID that could link your identity, finances, health, travel and, eventually, freedom into one state-controlled system.

No, thank you. I have a lot to get through. That, in many ways, feels reminiscent of '1984' or, more modernly, a 'Black Mirror' episode. The BritCard is not about convenience; it is very much about control. To many, a digital ID can sound harmless — to some, it may even sound helpful — but when the Government hold a single key to your data and identity, they hold the power to decide eventually who you are and what you can access. We in Northern Ireland reject that wholeheartedly. We have seen the trajectory in other countries and how digital IDs can become a precondition for opening a bank account, seeing a doctor or accessing public services. Sadly, we have seen that, once implemented, those systems do not stop expanding. They grow quietly and incrementally until surveillance becomes normal and privacy becomes suspicious. This Government have no right. Not only will the scheme be incredibly costly, as other Members have mentioned, but this Government cannot be trusted with that power and with the data of our people. In the Northern Irish context, the language is inherently divisive. Having something called a BritCard imposed here would be divisive by design and would undermine the delicate trust that has been built through decades of peace and shared institutions and the right to identity. Our history tells us that, when the Government seek to know everything about everyone, freedom is always the first casualty. This is about rights, democracy and the right to choose what you want. It is about the right to privacy, which is not a luxury but the foundation of freedom of thought, speech and conscience. Without privacy, there is no real democracy. The European Convention on Human Rights recognises that, as do international law and our moral conscience. When people fear that their data, associations or movements are being monitored, they self-censor and withdraw and democracy decays from the inside out. Freedom is messy and inconvenient. Sometimes, it means that Government do not know everything about everyone but that is a good thing. A truly democratic Government should trust their citizens more than their want to control them. The digital ID proposal flips that principle on its head. It says, "We own your identity, not you". That is why today is so important: it means that we can have a vote to reject and resist this. The debate has been interesting and eye-opening. I welcome the fact that every party, despite their beliefs, background or views of London, is standing together to reject what is a violation of privacy for our citizens here. Today, it is digital ID, but, tomorrow, it could be something a lot more sinister such as facial recognition, databases, movement scoring or technology-driven profiling. We say no to that: it is Government overreach. We must say no now and say no later —

No, thank you. I am almost done. Once we accept the premise, the technology has the potential to invade our lives and individual freedoms even more. The mark of a free society is not how efficiently it monitors its citizens but how fiercely it protects their right to live unmonitored. The BritCard is not the future, but it is a warning that our privacy, autonomy and very humanity are being traded. The people of Northern Ireland value their freedom more than a digital footprint. Let us lead by example, stand for liberty and say with one voice that we are citizens. As Robbie Butler rightly said, we are not barcodes. We reject the idea of a digital ID, and we will defend the right of our citizens to freedom and privacy without Government oversight.

783 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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