Mr. Drew Harris:

It is not so much a funding issue as a deployment issue. As the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland flagged up, we need to get back to our core functions. We are called upon too much to support other functions of Government. Often we are the very last public service on the ground and sometimes we are not the appropriate agency to make, for instance a mental health intervention. We are entirely the wrong agency for that. That is all flagged up by the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. We need to get back to more of our core function, much of which is just not crime but quality of life issues, anti-social behaviour issues, dealing with road traffic incidents etc. These are things that are properly our responsibility.