Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 December 2025
471. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration if he or his Department are now finally aware that in July 2021 the Garda National Technical Bureau (GNTB), with the expert assistance of the Garda ICT Department, diligently unearthed a catastrophic loss of biometric data amounting to in excess of 17,000 livescan fingerprint records that had fallen into ‘suspended’ status during the period June 2009 to July 2021. [70998/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Garda Commissioner is responsible by law for all operational policing matters under Section 33 of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024.
I am informed by the Garda authorities that the matter referenced by the Deputy concerns a number of livescan (digitised) fingerprints, and relates to an ICT issue whereby two Garda systems, namely PULSE and the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), do not appear to be communicating between each other fully.
In some instances, when the fingerprinting process has not been fully completed it is designated on PULSE as “suspended”. However, this “suspended” category does not appear on the AFIS database.
I understand that there has been significant engagement within An Garda Síochána, including Garda ICT, to identify the cause of the issue, its full extent, and remedies. This work is ongoing.
This review to date has found that there are approximately 23,000 “suspended” records that do not appear on the AFIS database.
