Mr. Mark Toland:

It is crucial to give people basic skills such as training in first aid. Many would have been trained at Templemore as many as 20 or 30 years ago and there is no ongoing training. For example, if one of their colleagues collapses or they are dealing with a member of the public, they will be depending on the skills they were taught a long time ago, but in the interim practices such as CPR have changed completely. Many organisations are providing training yearly; it used to be provided every three years when I was in the police service. Mr Tim Galvin is correct that detectives and armed officers are attending firearms training courses which is crucial. Sometimes it is softer training courses which are not taking place such as on customer service-type skills or the development of managers. As there has been a moratorium of at least 12 months on most training courses, there are big gaps in the numbers of people promoted. I know that the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors is worried about Garda sergeants and inspectors going out without having taken a promotion course, which is putting people in difficult positions. We are committed to providing training, but Ms King is correct that there are innovative ways of providing it such as CPT packages whereby my staff could log on to undergo training during down time. Much of it relates to information provision and the raising of awareness. It is crucial to have big pieces of legislation and for people to come together to discuss that legislation to make sure they understand it and allow them to ask questions. The organisation needs a training board and to undertake a training needs analysis at the highest level to prioritise the training that will be undertaken and specify how it will be delivered and by whom. Some training can be carried out locally and some at Templemore. It can be also be carried out remotely. There are other ways of delivering awareness training programmes.