Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has welcomed a report calling for the establishment of a national DNA database.
Mr McDowell was speaking after the publication of a Law Reform Commission (LRC) report which recommended a DNA database be established on a limited basis.
The Minister said he could not yet comment on its specific contents but that he did not believe there would be privacy issues involved in maintaining the database if proper controls were established.div>
He said he would seek to legislate for the development of a database at the earliest opportunity.
The recommendation is contained in the final report on the subject from the LRC.
It follows the publication of a consultation paper on the subject in March 2004 after a request from the Attorney General.
The Commission proposes legislation to establish a statutory body, the Forensic Science Agency, which would incorporate the Forensic Science Laboratory and would preserve the DNA database.
The report states that the database should include DNA from the deceased - both victims of crimes and, in certain circumstances, those suspected of crimes.
"The profile of a deceased person may be matched against the crime scene index where a court authorises this on the basis that there are reasonable grounds for suspicion that the deceased was responsible for a crime," it says.
The report also outlines whose DNA samples could be included in the database. These include those suspected of crimes, those convicted of crimes and those who consent in writing to having their samples taken in order to further the investigation of a particular offence.
Refusal to provide a sample should not be taken as a reasonable ground to suspect, it adds.
The LRC says the DNA of those convicted should remain on the database indefinitely, but profiles of suspects in investigations, or those acquitted in court, should only be held temporarily before being removed and destroyed.