Irish government backs bill on police use of biometric recognition

The Irish government has approved the publication of a bill that would permit its police force, the Garda Síochána, to use biometric recognition under specific conditions.

The Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill 2025 allows the use of biometric analysis, including retrospective facial recognition, during serious criminal investigations, state security matters and missing persons cases.

The legislation will enable the police to process vast amounts of footage and images more efficiently, Minister for Justice, Home Affairs, and Migration Jim O’Callaghan said on Thursday.

“We know time is of the essence when Gardaí are attempting to identify a perpetrator suspected of involvement in a serious crime or when tracking the movements of a missing person,” says O’Callaghan. “Therefore, it is critical that we remove the need to manually trawl through thousands of hours of footage, allowing them to pursue investigations more quickly, which will hopefully lead to successful outcomes.”

According to the planned legislation, biometric recognition would not be used for identification but to find instances of an individual across footage and images. The Department of Justice has previously clarified that the law covers physical, physiological, or behavioral characteristics of an individual, such as face or voice biometrics, as well as gait.

The law does not cover fingerprint, palmprint and DNA data, which are governed by a different legal framework. It also does not regulate real-time biometric identification, which is expected to be covered by separate legislation under the European Union AI Act. The Ministry has received approval to draft a General Scheme for both retrospective and live biometric identification, O’Callaghan announced on Thursday.

Biometric recognition safeguards

The amended Recording Devices Bill introduces a number of safeguards, including a Code of Practice, which will be drafted by the Garda Síochána. The use of the technology will be monitored by a High Court Judge with the power to access and inspect official documents and records.

The biometric tools will be used as an investigative tool with no automated decision-making. Their use will include human intervention by trained members of the police. The Bill also promises several controls to ensure that the use of the technology is necessary and proportionate.

The Code of Practice lays out procedural details, including data protection standards, human rights controls and transparency requirements.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  facial recognition  |  Ireland  |  legislation  |  police