Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I apologise to all the witnesses; I stayed for the opening statements but I had to leave because I was speaking in the Dáil Chamber. I may, therefore, ask a question that was already asked but if I do, I would like to hear the answer. In fairness, however, what I have gotten out of this session today is the absolute value and need for pre-legislative scrutiny when we come to really important issues like this. I am hearing many conflicting opinions across the board. Everybody's opinion really needs to be heard on this. One of the conflicting opinions I heard in the opening statements was, for example, when Mr. Garrett mentioned concerns that height could be used as a metric to identify a person. Commissioner Harris used a really good example of the use of technology to identify, say, a school crest on a young person who is a victim of sexual abuse. There are conflicting opinions and concerns on that.

My understanding is that we are discussing FRT and this debate today is specifically on that. This is kind of a simple question and I do not know whether it has been asked. Can FRT or this legislation be used to identify a person by height, clothes or other distinguishing identifiers apart from his or her face? A representative from the Law Society of Ireland might answer that question.