All foreign nationals from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) coming to live in the Republic will from next year have their fingerprints taken and stored on a Garda database along with criminals and asylum seekers, it has emerged. Conor Lally, Crime Correspondent, reports.
Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan has said he expects the new system to be in place in the first half of next year. Any person from outside the EEA - which includes the EU, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland - who plans to stay in Ireland for longer than three months, is already required to register with the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
Currently there are about 150,000 foreign nationals from outside the EEA residing in Ireland. All are issued with an identification card on registering.
However, under new provisions in the Immigration Bill, all of those who register will have their fingerprints taken. Their prints will be stored on their identification card and also on a new fingerprint database.
The database will also include the prints of criminals, those taken from crime scenes and those of asylum seekers.
The system will be linked to the Garda's Pulse computer database.
The new €7 million prints database was officially launched yesterday at Garda Headquarters, Phoenix Park, Dublin, by Mr Lenihan and Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy. It replaces a more primitive system that has been in use for the past ten years
Mr Lenihan said the recording of prints of those from outside the EEA would allow for their permits to stay to be more quickly reissued on expiry.
He said prints being included on identification cards would help prevent the cards being illegally copied.
"I am also committed to ensuring the State meets its responsibilities in the wider context of EU co-operation, both in the fight against crime and the co-ordination of member states' efforts in respect of immigration and asylum," he said.
The new database is linked to similar systems across the EU. It will enable gardaí to cross check unidentified prints found at a crime scene with print databases across Europe.
It will also enable gardaí to check if an asylum applicant has applied for asylum in any other EU country under another identity.
Since the new automated fingerprint identification system became operational last month, some 30 new arrivals have been found to have claimed asylum under another name elsewhere.
There have also been 350 positive identifications of prints from crime scenes, around twice the amount usually identified over the same period under the old system.
The new system is much more advanced than the decommissioned one. It allows for the analysis and cross checking of much smaller print samples.
Reliable Garda sources said the new technology would allow for the identification of foreign nationals landing at ports and airports to be instantly checked before they were granted access to the State.
It is envisaged "livescan" technology will be installed at a number of sites including ports, airports and the Office of the Refugee Appeals Commissioner.
Such technology will mean a person's prints can be checked at any location in the State where the livescan technology has been installed.