Mr. Drew Harris:

The short answer to both of those questions is yes. We will be an organisation that focuses on community policing. All of us will have a community policing ethos. I recognise what the Deputy says about local confidence in local gardaí, and I want to build on that and make sure it is enhanced going forward. One of the routes into that is community policing. As we work out our new divisional and district structure, an integral part of that will be how we will police with the community in each particular district or division. There will be a focus on local policing whereby service delivery will be focused on the district. Part of that will be how we manage the community policing element within a particular district. The Deputy can have assurance of that. I have seen the initial plans about what divisions will look like going forward, and that is built into them in terms of how we manage local accountability, local responsiveness and dealing with people's concerns at a local level. That is a given.

Community policing, as was said, will be a specialism in some areas depending on the demand. We see that in the urban areas. In rural areas, it may be more of a hybrid model where we will just regard all of our response officers as having a community responsibility but also having to attend calls as well. I was privileged to be in one of our small towns two weeks ago. The local guard also answered calls but he knew everybody we spoke to on first name terms and he introduced me to dozens of people. That is community policing. Everyone knew him by name and he knew and was able to identify and speak to many individuals. That is what we want to build on. We do not want to lose that.

We are an organisation of growth and which displaces people on to the front line, and we have the opportunity to build on that.