Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to follow up on Deputy Ó Laoghaire's point about the overspend in respect of overtime. When the Minister appeared before this committee a number of months ago, we flagged as an issue the fact that this year's planned overtime allocation for the Garda represented a reduction on the actual spend last year. Obviously, the overtime that was utilised or provided for last year was important in the context of organised crime or various operations.

Has the Commissioner had any discussions with the Minister about wanting to bridge the gap or is he focused on trying to drive better value, as he mentioned earlier, in terms of what the force is allocated?

People have mentioned their concerns that overtime cuts will have an impact on front-line policing. I ask the Commissioner to elaborate on it a little further. Will he seek an additional overtime budget next year, or does he think he has a sufficient budget?