Simon Harris has said that there are “some key issues you can't compromise on" as he used his final day as Justice Minister to double down on the need for “limited” use of facial recognition technology.
Tensions are continuing to build in the coalition as the Green Party once again attempts to block facial recognition technology (FRT) being introduced as part of legislation for Garda body cams.
Eamon Ryan’s party has repeatedly raised concerns about the use of FRT, saying that Ireland should wait until the EU legislates for its use.
READ MORE: Split in Government over Harris plan to introduce facial recognition technology for gardaí
Minister Harris doubled down on the use of body cams on Thursday, saying FRT is required in some circumstances to solve crimes.
He said: “The Gardaí need bodycams It's absolutely ridiculous and beyond ironic we live in a country where the only people at a protest without a camera is a member of An Garda Siochana.
“It's not acceptable. It's not acceptable to me. I don't believe it's acceptable to the men and women of An Garda Síochána.
“We have to allow our Gardaí use technology in certain circumstances linked with the most heinous of crimes.
“Right now, probably today, certainly this week, members of An Garda Síochána in Garda Headquarters will be sitting and looking through cybercrime, perhaps will have to look at online child abuse images.
“Imagine the impact of that on the Guard, and crucially, imagine how long it takes for the Gardaí to manually search to find the perpetrator to stop child abuse.”
He said that it is “time to make a decision” on the technology as the “Gardaí can't wait any longer”.
Minister Harris said that he sees “no reason” why a decision cannot be taken “within weeks” following the publication of a “compromise paper”. He argued that a failure to move on this will “raise very serious questions about how we're protecting Gardaí in this country and about how we tackle serious crime”.
He continued: “What we're talking about here is a very, very limited set of circumstances where the Gardaí need to be allowed to use technology to look at images that they already have within their possession.”
Mr Harris said that the Green Party had “legitimate concerns” but there are “some key issues you can't compromise on when you're Minister of Justice”.
He added: “When you get a letter from the Garda Commissioner that tells you that the lack of use of this technology can impede their work in relation to serious crime, you’d be a very foolish Minister of Justice that didn’t take that extraordinarily seriously.”
In response to Minister Harris’ claims, a Green Party spokesman said that it gave its “full backing” of the initial body can legislation but “is not supportive of Minister Harris’s proposal to amend the original bodycams bill in order to allow the use of a form of artificial intelligence known as facial recognition technology, which has proved controversial in other countries”.
He stated that while the party is “not ruling out the introduction of a limited form of FRT”, it believed that “the introduction of any form of artificial intelligence could have such enormous consequences that the Government should proceed with caution”.
They restated their belief that a stand-alone piece of legislation on FRT that would go through Oireachtas scrutiny is required.
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