Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-23
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

The Minister might clarify. While I am of course in favour of international co-operation on these important issues, I am concerned because the Minister did not answer my question. Other countries may use different definitions of biometric identification. For example, other countries could use the definition that is in the EU AI Act, and other countries do not have a bespoke biometric analysis definition. This is what I mean by being quite serious. We talked about a thing that is of high risk in terms of how it is done, but that is not about not doing it, it is about doing it properly. If we have made up our own definition of biometric analysis and other countries do not have that because they have biometric identification under the EU AI Act, how is that going to affect our co-operation? How is that going to affect a like-with-like comparison when we are working with others across Europe on this? Will the Minister have his biometric analysis material brought into comparison with the biometric identification? Will he be expecting them to narrow their definition of biometric identification to only include comparison with named databases? This is what I mean when I say it is quite serious if we are not taking on a common definition when, as the Minister has rightly pointed out, these are areas where co-operation is needed. I would like an answer as to why the Minister is choosing to narrow biometric identification to only situations where it is with a database of named individuals. I would also like to know how the Minister envisages co-operating when we have put our own definition of biometric analysis, and many other countries will probably have biometric identification. In that context, it is hard to see how the co-operation is to be effective. I would appreciate answers on these. It is important.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-23