Mr. Joseph Nugent:

The announcement in the Budget Statement provides the framework to allow the Garda Síochána to start on the greater level of deployment of civilian members throughout the organisation.

During the past number of years, no more than any other public sector body, the Garda Síochána has been operating in a controlled framework, whereby the recruitment of civilian members has been restricted. That clearly has changed now and we have the opportunity to identify, address and fill the posts that gardaí would have had to take on that otherwise traditionally would have been undertaken by civilians.

As the Commissioner states we have committed to a principle of civilian by default, which will mean that for non-operational policing roles, the default position is that it would be filled by somebody who is not a sworn member but a civilian member of the organisation. In that regard we have also committed to Government that we would provide the identification of a range of posts that are currently held by uniformed members but will be filled by civilians. That will be completed during the coming months.