Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think that it will be sufficient for this year. The idea is to get the new body up and running this year and to get it doing its work. The legislation is done. We need to now actually create the body and ensure it is up and running. We do not have full agreement yet on resourcing from An Garda Síochána, which is really important because we need gardaí seconded to the authority if it is going to do its work properly. We have a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána that is not yet signed. We need to get all that done in the next couple of weeks and then set up the body.

The Garda headcount will go from seven to 16, so it is more than doubling of Garda resources for the body. The headcount for the new agency will be 50% higher than was the case for the ODCE. I am not saying that we will stop there; we need to scale it up and give it more resources in the years to come. However, the target for this year is to get it up and running and working.