08-05-2025 
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Ireland has successfully completed a pilot of its national digital identity wallet, a new smartphone wallet to hold personal documents such as drivers’ licenses and health records, which now looks set for an official launch by the end of 2025. The move is part of a European Union plan for every citizen of the 27-nation bloc to be offered at least one digital ID wallet by 2026.
The Irish pilot involved over 500 public servants who volunteered for the testing, according to a Biometric Update report from July 28. The app/wallet being explored resembles existing digital wallets on iPhones and Android devices that hold credit cards and concert tickets, but is designed to hold official identity documents and essential records.
“Following positive feedback, the Government is examining the possibility of launching the wallet on a limited basis before the end of the year,” said a spokesperson of the Department of Public Expenditure, the agency overseeing the project, as reported by the Irish Independent.
The spokesperson added that “the Government Digital Wallet will ultimately enable a person who holds a wallet to have full access to their own personal data, in the form of credentials, and will enable them to use these via the wallet to obtain or transact with both public and private services as they wish.”
However, they did not indicate whether the digital wallet would become “mandatory but not compulsory” for accessing services such as pension and healthcare.
Earlier in the year, the Irish Government said the Digital Wallet app would “be a place to securely keep digital versions of important documents on a mobile phone or digital device. A driving licence, birth certificate or death certificate or a European Health Insurance card for example – records like these can be safely stored, conveniently available when you need them.”The Irish scheme is part of a broader EU initiative to offer digital ID wallets to all of its citizens and residents by 2026, after the European Digital Identity framework entered into force in May 2024. The regulation allowed for the creation of a “universal, trustworthy, and secure European digital identity wallet” that would ensure mutual recognition of national wallets by the other member states.
“Each Member State will offer at least one version of the EU Digital Identity Wallet, built to the same common specifications, by 2026,” states the EU Digital Identity Wallet’s home page. “EU Digital Identity Wallets will provide a safe, reliable, and private means of digital identification for everyone in Europe.”
The EU has also emphasized that the wallets will be “available to any EU citizen, resident or business in the EU who wants to use it,” but that “its use will be optional.”
In July, the European Commission (EC)—the EU’s executive arm—adopted seven new implementing regulations that focused on trust services, in addition to one implementing regulation detailing specifications for electronic attestations.
“Thanks to common rules created by the implementing regulations, Member States will be able to develop secure and privacy-enhancing wallets that are interoperable and accepted across the European Union by registered relying parties,” said the EC announcement.
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