A national DNA database would help Gardaí in the fight against serious crimes, according Galway West Fianna Fáil TD Frank Fahey. Deputy Fahey has said he believes that keeping a database of people who are proven to have been involved in serious crimes will give Gardai crucial and unprecedented access to intelligence that would be of significant help to them in solving serious cases.

He made this claim after the publication of a new Criminal Justice Bill which proposes the establishment, for the first time, of such a database.

"When the Bill becomes law, everyone who is arrested for a serious offence can be required to give a sample and everyone who is serving a sentence for a serious offence when this new law comes into force will be required to give a sample for the database."

"The samples will then be able to be used as evidence in criminal trials. Such a database would have been very helpful in recent, very tragic, Manuela Riedo murder case in Galway. The person charged with her murder was known to Gardaí and if such a database was established at that point, it would have helped the Gardaí solve the case quicker."

He explained that a lot of consideration has gone into this legislation and, in particular, to issues such as rights to privacy that will ensure ordinary people have nothing to fear from it.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment