Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has told a Dail committee he believes gardaí should carry cameras with them to take photographs of suspects in addition to writing down their names and addresses.
Mr McDowell also told the Oireachtas Justice Committee that he envisaged a time when patrol cars carried computers and CCTV cameras are installed in every Garda station.
The Minister was discussing the Criminal Justice Bill (2004) with the all-party committee.
"I envisage the day - now that we are in the era that most of us carry a camera in our phones - that gardaí on duty dealing with a disorder situation where they ask someone for their name and address, would also take a photograph of them so they know who they were dealing with afterwards, and that somehow this would be digitally sendable back to some record somewhere so that it is kept."
He said he didn't see the use of photographs as a "huge civil liberties issue."
"It does seem to me that we will soon get to the point that every squad car has a mobile computer attached to it, and will be in an position to communicate back."
Mr McDowell also said he would like to see CCTV installed in every Garda station in the country.