Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 43: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on whether the absence of a DNA database is an impediment to the Garda in its efforts to solve crimes here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32806/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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A central element of the Criminal Justice (Forensic Sampling and Evidence) Bill will be the establishment of a DNA database for the purposes of criminal investigations and the identification of missing or unknown deceased persons or seriously injured persons. The Bill will provide an updated statutory framework for the taking and use of forensic samples and will repeal the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence) Act 1990. It will draw on the recommendations of the Report of the Law Reform Commission concerning the establishment of a DNA database.

Drafting of the Bill is progressing, and I expect to be in a position to publish the Bill during this session. As has been the experience in other countries which have been operating such a database, the benefit of the database will be that it will assist the Garda Síochána by identifying links between crimes, through for example stains left at the crime scene by serial offenders, eliminating quickly from the scope of the investigation suspects who are already on a database and whose profiles do not match and identifying new suspects for crimes by means of cold hits (where a crime scene stain is matched with a profile of a person on the database who is not already a suspect). The objective in establishing the database is to increase crime detection rates, achieve efficiencies in the conduct of investigations, reduce court time due to early guilty pleas and deter persons whose profiles are already on the database from re-offending.