Unveiled in Dublin yesterday, the mural by artist Emmalene Blake, on Chancery Street in Dublin 7, is the latest action in ICCL’s ongoing campaign against the minister for justice’s plans to introduce facial recognition technology (FRT) into Irish policing.

Ahead of the general election, ICCL is calling on all political parties to abandon current government plans to introduce FRT and to protect people in Ireland from its harms.

Olga Cronin, surveillance and human rights senior policy officer with ICCL, said: “Facial recognition technology is a highly intrusive and invasive technology that is faulty, unreliable and discriminatory, and will have negative impacts on people’s lives and our society in the short and long term. Our mural highlights these twin dangers.

“While everyone subjected to FRT is at risk of being misidentified, FRT is least accurate when it is used to identify women and people with darker skin tones.

“In the short term, Garda use of FRT could increase the likelihood of women and people of colour being wrongfully misidentified and questioned by gardaí for crimes they have not committed. This is already happening in the UK and the US. Our mural is a warning against this occurring here in Ireland too.

“In the long term, as the technology gets more sophisticated, enabling Garda use of FRT means we will be putting a chilling power in the hands of gardaí to identify and track us as we go about our daily lives.

“Giving gardaí access to FRT would completely change Irish policing and the relationship between gardaí and the communities they serve, in particular minoritised communities.”

She added: “The government has said it intends to give gardaí access to FRT and yet the Oireachtas Justice Committee, which includes government TDs and senators, has highlighted serious deficiencies in the government’s plans.

“Ahead of the general election, we are calling on all political parties to abandon plans to introduce facial recognition technology into Irish policing and to protect the fundamental human rights of everyone in this country.”