Each new identity card to be introduced next year would contain an electronic chip containing the individual’s health record, Communications Minister Austin Gatt told Parliament yesterday.
Moving the second reading of the Central Registry Bill, he said the information would be linked to Mater Dei Hospital, health clinics and, in time, to general practitioners’ clinics. Eventually the individual’s banking information could be stored on the ID card, the use of which could be extended as an alternative to the passport and even the credit card, where small amounts were concerned.
Dr Gatt said he hoped that biometric passports would be introduced by the end of the year. These would contain the print of one of the individual’s fingers. In all probability, he said, they would also contain another security feature – the individual’s iris.
Full story – Times of Malta