Ms Helen Hall:

We have a very direct role in that in respect of, first of all, the adequacy of resources, on which we advise the Minister, but also in respect of effective policing. That people experience is the bottom line of the service, as the Vice Chairman rightly said. I share some of her questions about the distribution but, obviously, that is a matter for the Commissioner. Sometimes you hear local joint policing committees, JPCs, or local councillors say they do not want a reduction in the number of gardaí, but that should be a moving thing because it should be dependent on need, priority and, as the Vice Chairman said, population. That is important. I tend to be an optimist. One of the big things I see as positive is that the Commissioner introduced in late 2019 - it has got a little delayed due to Covid but it is getting back on track - the biggest change in the structure of the Garda since 1922, which is what is called the operating model. That is changing the way the Garda will resource and manage the organisation. Where there were 98 districts which rolled up into 28 divisions, now there will be 19 divisions. Some divisions will cut across two counties. They will have their own resources but it will be on a needs basis. That is looked at. The decisions around those divisions were made based on population, crime and things like youth and socioeconomics. There was a whole decision on that. I think that will help because if a district is run by just a superintendent and the resources are not shared across the division, that becomes a little tricky. That is one positive thing.

I go back to Deputy Hourigan's point about having the data. One of the things we have been concerned about and one of the things we have pressed in our advice to the Minister is that there needs to be significant investment in IT. It is hard sometimes. This is an organisation of 18,000 people, and the Commissioner needs to know at his or her fingertip where people are, what they are doing and what they are assigned to in order that some of those operational decisions can be made and the force is not, as the Vice Chairman said, being reactive but planning ahead, looking at particular areas that have, for example, population explosions and therefore more young people, looking at the risks in that regard and the socioeconomic indicators and saying we need to take gardaí away from certain areas.

Those are hard decisions that will also not be popular politically, but they are necessary at times.