Yet, the legislation announced by Justice Minister Alan Shatter yesterday — on the 12th anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington — appears to temper the need to add to the Garda’s investigative arsenal with concerns for personal liberties.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, is naturally cautious when it comes to extending policing powers, yet it has welcomed the publication of draft legislation intended to establish a DNA database under the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill 2013.

Its director Mark Kelly said: “Provided they include appropriate privacy safeguards, DNA databases are valuable crime fighting weapons. Moreover, the appropriate use of profiles obtained from DNA samples can enable law-enforcement officials more rapidly to eliminate innocent people from their inquiries.”

He also acknowledged the minister’s handling of the legislation, a version of which was first proposed by one of Shatter’s predecessor, Michael McDowell.

“It is evident that the Minister for Justice has gone to some lengths to take account of human rights concerns expressed about previous incarnations of this draft legislation,” said Kelly.

However, the council retains reservations about the extent to which samples and/or DNA profiles generated from such samples may be transmitted to other states, including countries outside the EU.

“It would be helpful if the minister were unambiguously to clarify that the role of the proposed DNA Database System Oversight Committee extends to reviewing the appropriateness of the data protection safeguards in place in states to which samples/profiles may be transmitted,” the council stated.

“As a matter of principle, samples/profiles should not be transmitted to states that cannot guarantee that they will be protected by appropriate privacy safeguards.”

The council also considers that it would be desirable if Shatter were to refer the bill for review to the Irish Human Rights Commission under Section 8(b) of the Human Rights Commission Act, 2000.

The One in Four charity also welcomed the legislation. While recognising that DNA databases have raised concerns for civil liberties in other jurisdictions, it acknowledged that “this legislation introduces robust safeguards to protect against abuses of stored DNA”.

Executive director Maeve Lewis added: “If convicted sex offenders do not re-offend, they have nothing to fear from this legislation.”

Rape Crisis Network Ireland was effusive in its praise and believes that its view is shared by victims of rape and sexual assault as well as by law-enforcement agencies.

“A DNA database increases the chances that perpetrators of sexual crime, especially those who are not known to the victims, will be brought to justice,” said Caroline Counihan, the network’s legal director.

“It could also assist the prosecution of perpetrators who may be known to their victims, but who deny any involvement in the crime of which they are accused.”

The chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, said: “We believe that not only will the DNA database help apprehend more perpetrators of sexual crimes in particular, but we hope that it will also act as a deterrent for potential perpetrators.”

The biggest welcome of all came from David McConnell, professor of genetics at Trinity College, Dublin.

He agreed with Rocky Harmon — a prosecutor in the OJ Simpson trial — that DNA profiling is the best thing to happen to forensic science since fingerprinting. “I think it is a watershed in the administration of justice in Ireland,” he said.

“It is being described as the most important advancement in forensic science since fingerprinting was introduced in the late 19th century.

“It has revolutionised forensic science around the world. It saves money, saves Garda time, saves lab time, saves court time.

“The beauty of DNA is that it can discriminate everyone from another on the planet. By contrast, eye witnesses to a crime are notoriously unreliable and even fingerprinting involves a judgment call.”

ITS use would also greatly add to our civil liberties, rather than take away from them, McConnell said. “Crucially, it only incriminates a single person and excludes everyone else, and will greatly accelerate the course of justice.”

McConnell said the experience elsewhere was that the use of DNA in the criminal justice system not only enhanced the pursuit of justice but also highlighted the crudity of many other investigative techniques.

“The evidence shows that in other jurisdictions there have been fewer miscarriages of justice with its use,” he said, pointing to a US study which shows that traditional methods are far from satisfactory.

“In the US they decided to assess whether a primary suspect was a proper suspect and they found that in 50% of the cases they were getting it wrong. I don’t think we are as guilty of as many miscarriages of justice here as in the US, but you never know.”

McConnell said he also felt the use of DNA profiling would relieve the victims of rape of further trauma involved in lengthy trials. “It means we will apprehend criminals more quickly.

Women who have been raped might not be able to identify the rapist and if they know that DNA evidence will point to guilt without them having to endure an identity parade, I think more women are like to come forward and help to identify extremely evil people.”