Gardaí are at a distinct disadvantage in solving crime because Ireland does not have a DNA database, the Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has said.
The Republic was one of only a few European countries that still do not have such a database, the early introduction of which Mr Conroy said he strongly supports.
"The advantages of a DNA database for policing are clearly obvious in that DNA extracted from crime scenes can save valuable time in speedily either associating or eliminating suspects in an investigation," he said.
Mr Conroy told delegates at the Garda Representative Association annual conference in Tralee that the introduction of a DNA database in the UK had reduced crime by 5 per cent.
The database there had a "hit rate" of 50 per cent, meaning that one in every two samples on the database resulted in information on suspects being provided to the police. The database in Scotland had proved even more successful, with a hit rate of 70 per cent.
Mr Conroy said Garda management had been closely studying the interim report of the Morris tribunal since its publication last year. Seven of the nine working groups established to examine changes within the force had reported back to him, and policy changes would be considered and implemented.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said he shared the views of Mr Conroy on the issue of the DNA database. The Law Reform Commission was considering this issue, and he would wait for it to report to him before he acted on the matter.
There were issues surrounding civil liberties that needed to be addressed before a database could be implemented.
Mr McDowell rejected the suggestion by the GRA president Dermot O'Donnell that he could withdraw, at will, privileges from the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe in Castlerea prison.
"I can't act in an arbitrary way. I have to act in a way which is lawful and proper," the Minister said.
"I have to maintain the situation that I found. If there is any reason to change that I won't hesitate to do it. They are where they are; I've inherited this situation. It's not a question of me being happy or unhappy [ with the current situation]. I have to live with facts as I find them."
He said he could only transfer the men if their behaviour in the prison warranted it, and he could not act on pressure from the GRA for the men's transfer back to a traditional prison environment.
He rejected Mr O'Donnell's suggestion that the men were "kings in their own compound", a reference to the relaxed area of the prison, known as The Grove, where the men are housed.
He told delegates the killers would not be released early.
On the wider issue of paramilitary groups, Mr McDowell said the "uncovering of a very sophisticated money-laundering operation graphically underlined the threat which the Provisional movement still poses for this State".That Garda operation showed, to borrow a phrase, that An Garda Síochána hasn't gone away, you know," he said. "This is a State built on the rule of law. There is no place for those with a ballot box in one hand and a money-laundered bank draft in the other".
He said crime rates had fallen steadily over the last two years, and gardaí deserved credit for this.
However, Fine Gael's spokesman on justice Jim O'Keeffe TD said this reference by Mr McDowell "was a classic example in pompous self-promotion".
"The Minister's rhetoric on crime levels, and on his plans for the Garda Síochána, is quickly punctured by common sense and everyday reality.
"It would be better if Minister McDowell stuck to the facts and took concrete steps to deal with the reality of crime and anti-social behaviour, rather than spending his time manipulating the media for a publicity-raising exercise."