Mr. Pat Leahy:

I will not speak for Mr. Todd because he says what he means and if he wanted to tell the Deputy that he was under-resourced, those are the words he would have used. I will not interpret it that way. It is a political choice. That is the bottom line. The numbers in the Garda are also a political choice. We know we are heading towards 21,000. That is the figure laid down for us. There will be 15,000 sworn members, 4,000 civilian members and 2,000 reservists.

That is the figure that has been set for us and it is the figure we are moving towards. To give Deputy Wallace an indication of the journey so far, in 2009 we had 14,590 and the total today is 13,751. However, we did hit a low in 2014 of in or around 10,500. We have been on a journey - almost of one of rags to riches - but I do not know whether we will reach the target at any stage. I do not know a police organisation - or a police manager - that would say no to additional resources. That is the bottom line. It is set for us and we have to operate within the guidelines. The handrails are set for us in terms of determining strategy and internal operations are down to ourselves.