Mr. Brendan O'Connor:

As representatives of members of garda rank we would not actually have a role at that high level in making decisions on roll-outs. From my own understanding I believe that the intent here is to regularise the situation. Operationally, there are a lot of community CCTV systems that were in place and that were used for many of the purposes that are described here, such as crime prevention. Some contributors highlighted that there were issues with data protection compliance so I understand the intent of this Bill is to regularise the situation.

Certainly, I am not aware of any intention to use it as a facial recognition system. From our own perspective in the GRA, we would say that we are very behind in our technology and we have not seen any evidence of that. We cannot, however, speak comprehensively on behalf of An Garda Síochána or the Commissioner. That is not our role here.