Mr. Martin Callinan:

The issue of resources weighs heavily on every section and unit of my organisation and on every part of the civil and public service. Garda personnel has been reduced somewhat. In the past two years the numbers have been reduced by almost 1,000. Resources, human and financial, are a challenge. Nevertheless, the prosecutions and arrests we have been making in recent times speak to the fact that we are efficient and effective. It is about smart policing and changing the dynamic of how we police while providing the type of service we provided previously. That involves the community.

Without the community we would not survive as a policing and security agency. The community is at the heart of everything we do.

The Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, was mentioned. We spoke already about it being a multi-agency organisation. All the stakeholders that have a law enforcement input are working with us. One sees, for example, multi-agency checkpoints and how the dynamic of the CAB model works. That permeates all the way down. The advantage of joint policing committees is that they help to highlight how we can help each other. It also provides the opportunity to indicate to elected representatives such as the committee members and other community leaders the limitations that exist and the constraints placed upon us. By working together we can solve many of the problems in the community. The evidence in more recent times, in terms of the captures and seizures we have achieved, speaks to our efficiency and effectiveness at this point in time.