Mr. Drew Harris:

We are a growing organisation. If there were no structural changes, we would still have additional staff. However, we are moving from 124 administrative units to 19. We have also changed our divisions. Personnel will be freed up as a result. Some of those will be administrative personnel. We want to see how we can use them so that they can free gardaí for front-line duties. There are other roles such staff can take on.

The focus has been on organisational support. Now we need to move into an arena where we will use Garda staff to provide operational support. It can be provided in carrying out such tasks as engaging in front-line duties, something we have already done in respect of command and control structures and the CCTV suites. There are a number of other areas where we can employ staff to displace Garda members.