Gardai will soon be allowed to trawl through thousands of hours of CCTV using AI technology in the wake of the Dublin riots.
The Justice Minister is to fast forward and expand the scope of new facial recognition technology legislation to include riot and violent disorder. Helen McEntee said the draft laws will be ready to be approved by the Government within weeks.
The minister said gardai should not be required to manually trawl through 6,000 hours of CCTV, as they are doing this weekend to identify those behind Thursday’s unrest. The minister revealed she has discussed the requirement for these new laws with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and frontline officers.
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The draft laws when passed will provide gardai with new powers to identify and track the movements of suspects in relation to serious crimes, including murder, terrorism, child sexual abuse and rape.
In an update on the situation yesterday, Ms McEntee said there is now a strong, highly visible Garda presence in the city centre. She added: “It’s so important that people feel safe in our town and in our cities right across this country.”
She said additional funding of €4.4million has been allocated to buy more Garda cars and vans. The funding will allow the force to buy 95 extra Garda cars and vans by the end of 2023. These include 17 high visibility public order Garda vans, 38 electric patrol cars, and 40 unmarked surveillance vehicles.
Ms McEntee said the garda dog unit and mounted unit are also being deployed, and two water cannons are now available if required. She added: “I want to again be clear that the thuggery we saw on Thursday will not be tolerated and, as Minister for Justice, An Garda Siochana, including Commissioner Harris, have my full support to maintain order.
“Those responsible will be brought to justice.”
Ms McEntee insisted yesterday the Garda has all the resources necessary to keep people in Dublin safe. She also rejected a call from Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald for her and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to resign.
She said: “If Sinn Fein wish to debate law and order, if Sinn Fein wish to debate how we can support the gardai, I have no problem in standing over Fine Gael’s record of law and order, Fine Gael’s record of supporting members of An Garda Siochana. I do not believe Sinn Fein can stand over their record.” Ms McDonald said there had been a “an unacceptable, unprecedented collapse in policing” and a problem leading to Thursday’s riot had been “building for months”.
Damage to public infrastructure in Dublin from the disorder could cost tens of millions of euros to repair, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said.
A five-year-old girl injured in the knife attack outside a school remained in a critical condition in hospital on Friday. The female care assistant, in her 30s, was in a serious condition.
The two other children, a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, suffered less serious injuries. That girl remained in hospital on Friday but the boy has been discharged.
Gardai said a man who sustained serious injuries at the scene is a person of interest in their probe.
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