Mr. Noel Waters:

Of course they vary from time to time. Clearly, from the perspective of the Department the support of the Garda in its work preserving the peace and security of the people of Ireland is clearly a major role of us in the Department and we would be very strong on that. What does that mean in practical terms? It means negotiating with our colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on the annual budget for the Garda and supporting the force in whatever way we can. Clearly crime is always going to be with us. Right now it is a very serious issue. The Deputy will be aware of the Minister's announcements during the week and a resource envelope is being made available to tackle crime. That is a very big issue for us.

The immigration area is a huge issue for the Department which impacts on the Garda as well. This is an issue which has resonated around the world and around Europe, in particular, which we see every night. We have to deal with all of the related issues.

We have to support the prison system of course in terms of ensuring that the prison system maintains the safe custody of people. We support the Courts Service in ensuring that justice is administered fairly. We also have a whole range of equality issues in our remit around the Department which we have to ensure we support as well.

In looking at matters in the round, what are we trying to do in the Department? We are trying to ensure that the entire criminal justice system is joined up and over the years that may not always have been the case. When one part of the system does something we must ensure that the implications are known to the others parts of the system. For example, in terms of addressing burglaries at the moment, and the Deputy may have heard the statistic that 75% of all burglaries are committed by 25% of burglars. We want to ensure, and these cases are now being targeted by the Garda, that we have the resources and provisions in place to ensure that the perpetrators are brought before the courts, that they are dealt with expeditiously in the courts, that the law is appropriate - the Minister, as the Deputy will know, is addressing that aspect - and if a person is sentenced to a term of imprisonment that he or she is held there. We have a number of proposals which will be announced in the near future in terms of ensuring that we join up appropriately to keep all of the elements of the criminal justice system working efficiently in order that we have better outcomes for everybody.