Mr. Drew Harris:

It certainly could be more efficient. As I mentioned already, we are called into non-core police roles, which distract us from our core function. Internally we have many things we want to do. We have a big capital expenditure programme on ICT and the digitisation of our work, which will make us more efficient. The introduction of more Garda staff will free up sworn Garda members for operational duty, which will make us more effective. It is not just about the size of the organisation; it is how we use the resources in order that they are most effective. We are somewhat hamstrung in that we do not have the electronic information systems to give us real-rime information about demand and the money we spend. We will be in a better place in two years when we have rolled out the computer-aided despatch system, the investigation management system and our own roster and duty management system, RDMS. The more we can gain information, the more we can understand about how we are spending our money, thereby allowing us to direct it towards our priorities. We need to do much more under the heading of efficiency.