There is a split brewing in the coalition over Justice Minister Simon Harris’ intention to allow gardaí to use controversial facial recognition technology.
Several Green Party sources told the Irish Mirror that its politicians were “deeply uncomfortable” with the idea of making a last-minute change to legislation underpinning the wearing of garda body cameras for the first time.
On Wednesday during a discussion on the Garda Siochana Recording Devices Bill 2022, Mr Harris stated that he intended to bring an amendment to the Bill that would provide for the use of facial recognition technology. However, as the Bill has already progressed, there would not be room for pre-legislative scrutiny.
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The Irish Mirror understands that there is unease across the Green Party regarding the proposed amendment.
One senior party source said that while the Green Party takes the safety of gardaí “very seriously”, there are issues with facial recognition.
They explained: “We know the challenges the gardaí face. We want to ensure they have the best technology available but we don’t want to create other problems.”
The main concerns about the proposal are the impingement on human rights, as well as concerns about bias. Green Party sources also argued that this technology has not worked in other countries.
The Mirror understands that there will likely be further conversations at Cabinet between ministers, with the Greens expressing concern.
Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, Green Party whip Marc Ó Cathasaigh spoke out against the technology following Minister Harris’ comment on facial recognition technology (FRT) yesterday.
He said: “There is a growing body of evidence that shows that FRT can be inherently biased, exposing divergent error rates across demographic groups, with the poorest accuracy consistently found in subjects who are female, black and between 18 and 30 years of age.”
Mr Ó Cathasaigh said that there are moves in the EU to legislate on artificial intelligence. This will not be completed until 2024. He argued that legislation for facial recognition technology in Ireland should be delayed until then.
He continued: “Given the gravity of this issue, I would ask if it would not be more appropriate to allow this bill to progress through the Houses of the Oireachtas without the introduction of the FRT amendments [and] to return to this through standalone legislation that would allow for a period of meaningful public consultation.”
The Green Party’s justice spokesman Patrick Costello, meanwhile, told the Irish Mirror that facial recognition technology would be a “needless assault on our civil liberties”.
He said: “It doesn’t work. It has an age and race bias discrimination problem.
“It opens the door to mass surveillance which is concerning and not allowed under the European Union rights of citizens.
“It brings into focus data protection and retention problems. This is a complicated area and anytime you are giving new powers or technology to the police, you have to balance the rights of citizens to be free from State intervention and the right of citizens to safety.
“You don’t want to tie the guards’ hands too much, but you don’t want to give them a free hand.”
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