Ms Anne Marie McMahon:

I will have to answer that question in a general sense as opposed to specifically about Irish speaking sergeants. There was a revision, as was already alluded to, of the regulations regarding promotion to the rank of sergeant. That took considerable time. In fact, it is over three years since we had a competition. We are currently in the process and are almost at the end of the first phase of the first batch of sergeants. They will come on stream in the next week or so, or imminently in any event. In terms of recruiting sergeants who specifically speak Irish, to the best of my knowledge, that was not an issue and it was not a driving force in the changes that emerged.