Mr. Drew Harris:

I receive a very considerable budget, but An Garda Síochána is a large organisation. I will hope to spend every last red cent of it by the end of the year. However, the budget is tight. Considerable costs are wrapped up in the number of people we employ, the allowances and the overtime. We are a growing organisation and the budget reflects that. This year we will recruit a further 600 Garda staff, but 500 of them will displace Garda members - sworn members - out to operational duties. We are pretty unique in Europe as a growing law-enforcement organisation. While the process of receiving and training so many new people creates its own challenges, it is a good place to be as one can make commitments about additional resources to areas and for important national units, such as economic crime and organised crime.