October 2005 - MyCard Lisburn

Following a tender, Ecebs Multefile technology has been selected for a consortium run by the CARA Group to run a pilot Smart Card scheme in eight secondary schools in the Lisburn area of Northern Ireland.

The pilot forms part of the Online NI e-Government strategy being managed by the Northern Ireland eGovernment Unit within the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Under the pilot scheme, which will launch in October 2005 and run until June 2006, approximately 6,500 pupils at the eight schools will be issued with photographic smart cards each containing a microchip which will carry data and an electronic purse enabling them to pay for school meals, borrow library books, and use leisure and sports facilities within the local area.

The core use of the card, called MyCard, is to enable pupils to carry out day-to-day transactions without the need to carry cash. Among the benefits is a reduction of the incidence of bullying, and the removal of the stigma attached to those pupils who are in receipt of state benefits. MyCards will look the same for all pupils, but the source of funding may be different depending on the reason for issue.

Accourt, Infineer and Identifile, all of who have been involved in implementing other government projects in the past, also back the consortium.

Multefile is the software that makes the chips in smart cards work together with the software on terminals that the smartcards use. Multefile enables card issuers to design, implement and change one or more application themselves