The EU Council Presidency has proposed the setting of the minimum age for recording and storing facial images and fingerprints in the chip of a passport.
It proposes that both images and fingerprint records on passports be compulsory from the age of 12 and be permissible below that age.
The decision is to be made in a Committee on which Ireland has a representative. Its original brief covered visas; it was extended to documents of non EU nationals in the EU; it then began to look at passports and is currently looking at EU ID cards
What is Ireland’s position on these questions Mr. Ahern?
Are we intent on fingerprinting our children?
Are we intent on fingerprinting everybody?
Why?
Information completeness is an issue here… in the UK they are piloting hand-held fingerprint scanners for police. However the scanner only reads the index finger. What happens if the police encounter a person who, unfortunately, has lost the tips of both their index fingers?