New legislation introduced by the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter means that criminals convicted of serious offences will be required to submit a sample of their DNA which will be retained on a central database to help Gardai solve future crimes.

Luke O’Neill, Professor of biochemistry and Director of the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute at Trinity College Dublin joined Pat to explain what exactly DNA is, what it tells us, and why DNA profiling can be controversial and problematic.

If you have any questions for Luke O'Neill or any suggested topics, email patkenny@newstalk.ie