Mr. Noel Waters:

The Deputy referred to the fact that a number of years ago when we all had far larger budgets, the Garda overtime budget for the country was a multiple of what it is now. I think in the coming years it will be of the order of €33 million to €34 million. In 2006 or 2005, it would have been closer to €130 million if I remember correctly. Clearly, this has an impact. At the same time, the strength of the force was higher than it is now. Like every other public service body such as the Department and all its areas, the Garda suffered as a result of the need to make very serious cutbacks. As the Minister has pointed out repeatedly, in a recovering economy, what we want to do in our job of supporting the Minister, the Government and the Garda in this is to ensure an appropriate level of resources is made available to the Garda at Estimates time.

We have had some modest success this year, and last year. First, Templemore has been reopened, which is a major item. It was closed for a number of years. Nothing was happening there. There are now 560 people at various stages of training in Templemore. The period in which they are being trained has been considerably shortened. They become fully functioning gardaí now after 32 weeks of training. They do go back at a later period. Another 600 gardaí will be recruited next year. There are operational issues, such as the number of cars, equipment and-----