The Justice Minister will unveil plans later to give Gardaí facial recognition technology.
Helen McEntee will tell the Garda Representative Association conference the force can't have one arm tied behind its back.
Minister McEntee intends to get Cabinet backing to legislate to give Gardaí facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology for use in tackling serious crimes.
She believes it should be used in a targeted manner like for child exploitation, murder and missing persons cases.
In a speech later the Minister will say she can't agree with those who call for a ban on facial recognition technology and in some cases public interest overrides the right to privacy.
Minister McEntee will argue at present Gardaí need to trawl through hours of footage when they have a photo of a suspect, something which could be done in minutes by facial recognition.
She will say a full data protection and human rights assessment will be carried out and the technology could only be used in limited circumstances like searching CCTV footage.
