Holding a DNA fingerprint of everyone in the State would enhance, not diminish, civil liberties and would improve the quality of justice, according to a leading professor of genetics.
No one other than those committing crimes should fear such a proposal, he said.
Legal and civil liberties groups have reacted negatively to the suggestion, made yesterday by Prof David McConnell, professor of genetics at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties described it as "absolutely unsustainable".
"A DNA database will greatly add to our civil liberties," Prof McConnell said yesterday. "It would enhance the quality of justice."
The suggestion comes as the Law Reform Commission considers the issue of holding genetic fingerprint information on individuals, following a request from the Attorney General's office to examine the issue.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has also advocated the creation of a DNA database of convicted persons, similar to those being assembled in the UK, the US and New Zealand.
"We now have an extremely powerful way to protect against miscarriage of justice," Prof McConnell said yesterday.
So far 28 people in the US had been cleared, through the use of DNA fingerprint technology, of crimes for which they were convicted but didn't commit, he said. Some were on death row and together they had served a total of 197 years.
"Fortunately for them there was still DNA evidence from their cases, and they were all found to be innocent," Prof McConnell said.
Existing DNA databases so far only hold information on those convicted of serious crimes. "I am pretty sure that most people would accept that idea," he said.
The data would have no relevance to employers or insurance companies. "The data stored would be meaningless in medical terms." It would need to be kept very secure, however, to prevent any claims of abuse.
The scientist who invented DNA fingerprinting in the 1980s, Sir Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester, was in favour of universal DNA fingerprinting as a way to prevent discrimination, Prof McConnell said.
"That is my view, too. Personally I think it is the right thing to do. Nobody has anything to fear except the criminals," he added.
The director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said it was strongly opposed to the use of DNA technology in this way. "I think that the suggestion is absolutely unsustainable," Ms Aisling Reidy said yesterday. "There is no country in the world that tries to DNA \ all its citizens."
The data would be difficult to protect, she said, and in the future could be used for other purposes.
The director-general of the Law Society of Ireland, Mr Ken Murphy, was also opposed to the idea. "We have yet to hear a compelling case for the collection and maintenance of genetic records on every citizen and would have fears at the uses to which such information would be put," he said yesterday.
