Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, okay. I reject the misrepresentations of me by the Minister. He has misrepresented some of my comments. For the benefit of other members of the committee and to refresh the Minister's memory, it was widely reported by reputable sources earlier this year that the Garda payroll budget would fall short. I questioned the Minister in the Dáil on a number of occasions on that matter. He replied in the negative and said that there would not be an issue. I was doing my job in raising a concern which had been expressed publicly. I also sought some information under the Freedom of Information Act and was denied that information by the deciding officer in the Department. The reason given for that denial was that it was the subject of ongoing negotiations. However, we are where we are now and I do not need to replay the game all over again with the Minister. Suffice to say that of course all public servants should be paid and it is wrong of the Minister, if not beneath him, to come in here and allege that I do not want to see people getting paid. Perhaps when he is responding, the Minister might tell us at what point during the year it was flagged to him that the payroll budget for An Garda Síochána would fall short.

The Minister referred to recruitment in his statement. There is a lot of interest in the forthcoming Garda recruitment campaign, and the advertisements will be published some time before Christmas. How many recruits will be taken on in the initial recruitment drive? A number of queries have been raised with me about the status of the Garda Reserve force. Will existing members of that force be treated differently in the application process by virtue of the fact that they are members of the Garda Reserve force? Will they have a competitive edge?

Finally, regarding free legal aid, I ask the Minister to give us an overview of the workings of the legal aid system. I know we will be examining this more closely at a future date in the context of proposed legislation. There is concern about the fact that there are a community of people who are repeat clients of the free legal aid scheme, particularly the criminal free legal aid scheme. What is the position regarding the seeking of a contribution from such people towards the cost of the provision of free legal aid services? Many of these people complete a statement of means, and I am interested in the collection by the State of client contributions towards the provision of free legal aid.