Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is landmark legislation and I wish to take the opportunity to thank Senators for their support for it. I also pay tribute to everybody who has been involved in the development of the legislation over a long period, including the Law Reform Commission which did a report on this matter. In addition, the previous Government published a Bill. In particular, I pay tribute to my predecessor, the former Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter, for the huge amount of work he did in ensuring this Bill, which was a commitment in the programme for Government, was brought to the Dáil. Quite a number of amendments were made to it which took account of a range of human rights concerns and other detailed issues.

I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to bring this important legislation to this House. It is a landmark Bill in dealing with such issues. It will be a major help to the Garda Síochána given the technology it offers. It puts our DNA legislation on a statutory basis, which is extremely important.

I also thank the officials from the Department of Justice and Equality who have worked on this legislation over a period of three years. From the painstaking level of detail in the Bill, one can see just how much work was involved in producing it.

The legislation will have a quantifiable and immediate impact on the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of crime. I thank all Senators for their support in ensuring we now have this legislation in place.

I note that Dr. Sheila Willis from the Forensic Science Laboratory and Dr. Maureen Smyth, who has recently retired, are in the Visitors Gallery. I wish Dr. Willis the very best in the application and administration of this database and the development of the work involved. A range of work is required to be done by the Department in preparing for its implementation. I want to inform the House that the work is under way and a departmental committee is working on it.