Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Very well. I will be brief. I reiterate this Bill should have been referred to the Irish Human Rights Commission. I also wish to talk about innocent people who were affected by this in the past. On a practical level and noting the Minister's assurances, is he satisfied the forensic science laboratory has the necessary equipment, resources and staff to meet the demands of this Bill? There is no point in passing this legislation only to be faced with poor resources. Function creep is another issue of concern with this Bill and Sinn Féin does not want to see a situation in which there is a gradual widening of the database beyond the purposes for which it was originally intended. I wish to conclude by warning that although there are many positives to a DNA database, one must keep in mind that they can put innocent people at risk. This is particularly the case as technology has developed to allow the generation of DNA profiles from the tiniest of DNA samples. In the Omagh bomb case LCN DNA evidence produced a partial match to a six-year old schoolboy in Nottingham who was on the British database. He was quickly eliminated from the investigation but imagine if he had been an innocent man in his 20s living in the Border counties?

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