Harris doubles down on plans to fast-track facial recognition technology

Simon Harris: 'I'm really clear that the Garda Commissioner believes he needs these tools. And as a justice minister, I'm going to do everything I can to provide them.' File picture: Gareth Chaney

Justice Minister Simon Harris has doubled down on plans to fast-track the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) by gardaí despite a disagreement within the Coalition on the issue.

The Green Party has said it would prefer if standalone legislation dealt with FRT rather than amending current legislation working through the Oireachtas to enable the use of the technology by gardaí.

Mr Harris again said he does not want to see a delay to the introduction of FRT and has received support from Tánaiste Micheál Martin on the matter. He said he welcomes Mr Martin’s comments in which he said he favours the use of FRT in very specific circumstancessuch as child abuse and murder.

The Tánáiste said once adequate safeguards are put in place, he believes "it's moving in the right direction".

The Green Party said it believes the issue of FRT is far too complex to be dealt with by way of an amendment to an existing bill and argues this is evident given that significant concerns have been raised about its use in other countries where the technology has wrongly identified people.

Green Party junior minister Ossian Smyth said FRT is an extremely powerful and evasive piece of technology. He said it should be introduced in a separate piece of legislation and be given proper scrutiny for a number of weeks rather than a few hours.

He told RTÉ News that the technology has "major implications" for privacy.

'We have to give gardaí the tools'

Mr Harris said he does not “obsess about what mode or method gets us there”, but said what he does obsess about is “the fact that we have to give the gardaí the tools that they need to tackle serious crime".

He said the approach taken in Ireland will be “cautious” in comparison to other jurisdictions.

When asked how he will get his Green Party colleagues onside, Mr Harris said he expects to sit down with the Coalition leaders shortly to brief them on his proposals.

“But I'm really clear that the Garda Commissioner believes he needs these tools. And as a justice minister, I'm going to do everything I can to provide them,” he said.

Mr Harris said the Green Party has made a number of points about safeguards in relation to the legislation and said they are “legitimate points".

He said he hopes and expects “we can find a landing zone that protects people in this country” from crime.

Mr Harris said gardaí currently have to manually trawl through thousands of images of the “most horrific crimes possible against children where time is of the essence".

He said FRT can prevent a guard from the “human trauma” of having to sit through this and perhaps find the perpetrator much more quickly and protect children.

“There are other examples; if an older person went missing from a nursing home, maybe somebody with Alzheimer's and you need to find them quickly.

"But it is absolutely right and proper to say that when you bring in new technologies, of course there's a need for safeguards that is entirely appropriate.

"And I can absolutely say that the approach we'll be taking in Ireland in this regard is cautious compared to other jurisdictions," said Mr Harris.