MS NORA Owen inaugurated a computerised information system which promises to revolutionise the Garda fingerprint section.
The Minister for Justice pointed "out yesterday that it was estimated to take 500 working hours to process a fingerprint under the old system. The Automated Finger print Information System (AFIS) can do the same work in as little as 10 minutes.
All 150,000 recorded finger prints have been transferred to the new computerised system in the past two months. Gardai will now be able to process the 12,000 odd fingerprints received each year in a fraction of the time taken by the old manual sorting method.
The new system,"located in the Technical Bureau at Garda Head quarters in Dublin, is the first element in the £28 million information technology programme "which is being introduced by the Deputy Commissioner in charge of operations, Mr Patrick Byrne.
Ms Owen said at the inauguration that system had proved successful in tests over the past few weeks. It has already identified fingerprints of suspects in 45 cases.