Ireland's moved a step closer to having a national DNA database for criminals.
Ministers have signed off on the final draft of a new bill in Cabinet today.
The bill to go before the Dáil later this year will allow the authorities to retain a DNA sample from anyone sentenced to five years or more in jail.
It'll also provide that most people convicted of a serious sexual offence will hand over a sample.
The sample will be held for a fixed length of time, and it's expected that the DNA sample will be disposed of if the criminal does not re-offend.
DNA samples are already held in many other EU states - and an Irish system will mean samples taken from a crime scene here can be checked against databases in other countries.
The move is likely to be welcomed by the families of unidentified crime victims - but may be opposed by civil liberties groups, who will raise concerns that the system could see Gardaí collect samples at crime scenes from people who have actually done nothing wrong.
