Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 March 2014
405. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if a PULSE file was created on a Traveller child when that child was 16 days old; and if this child was ascribed a criminal intelligence number separate from a parent or guardian (details supplied). [11631/14]
View answer406. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the steps he has taken to confirm whether Traveller children or adults are being assigned separate criminal intelligence PULSE numbers without having committed any criminal conduct; and the action he will take regarding same. [11632/14]
View answer424. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he has established with the Garda Commissioner the veracity of the allegations that 40 Traveller families were entered on the Garda PULSE system, including a baby of 16 days old; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11997/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 405, 406 and 424 together.
The management of the PULSE system is an operational matter for the Garda Commissioner. While An Garda Síochána does not comment on individual cases, I am informed by the Commissioner that PULSE does not solely capture information on offenders, but is also used to store information on Garda interactions with individuals, whether adults or children, such as victims of crime, persons injured in road traffic accidents and child welfare incidents. All persons are subject to the same PULSE recording policy and procedures.
I have also been assured by the Garda Commissioner that the Garda Síochána does not engage in ethnic profiling, and specifically that it does not engage in data gathering or data mining based upon discriminatory profiling in respect of race, colour, language, religion, nationality, national or ethnic origin, ethnicity or membership of the Traveller community.
