Ms Noirín O'Sullivan:

The current number is just below 13,000. The introduction of the new rosters last year has greatly helped us to cluster those resources. It has allowed us to focus more on the deployment of personnel and, particularly at the cross-over of the units, it gives us more people to put on the street. However, it is something we keep under constant review. At present, the rosters have certainly helped us in terms of looking at where people are placed and then being able to cluster the resources to maximise the operational efficiency of the people we have, and also to feed into a high visibility policing strategy.