Linking gardaí to EU database will cost €4m

The Government is to spend €4m on a system that will allow gardaí link to an EU-wide database for missing persons and property — but will not give access to alerts about suspected terrorists or fake passports.

Ireland is now the only EU country has no links into the SIS II system, which was launched to much fanfare during the Irish EU presidency in 2013.

Britain joined it but, because, like Ireland, it is not one of the Schengen border-free countries in the EU, it has access only to information such as stolen or lost property such as cars and boats, and for missing people, including children.