Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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148. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will confirm that An Garda Síochána utilises the Evo-Fit system to draft an image of a suspect on each occasion, when an eyewitness can provide a facial description of a suspect. [27988/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Garda authorities that a new system to assist An Garda Síochána in visually identifying suspects was deployed earlier this year.

The system, known as Evo-Fit, uses a store of images of individual facial features and shapes (e.g. noses, eyes, mouths, hairstyles etc.) held within the system to assemble a full electronic facial likeness based on the recollections of witnesses and victims of crime. In effect, EvoFIT carries out the same function that police sketch artists would traditionally have used but with more accuracy.

The use of Evo-Fit as an aid to investigations is an operational matter for An Garda Síochána.