James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Very good. I thank the Minister of State. I am not sure whether it is an issue of resources, equipment, training or all of the above, but the Minister of State referred to attacks on members of the force while on duty, such as those in Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard and a few others we heard about during summer and in recent months. It was suggested in the media at the time of those incidents that there were many probationer gardaí in particular stations and units, which is a challenge. The Garda is in a tough situation as it is and if the balance is tipped toward less experienced members of the force being clustered in one area, that will be a difficulty. This may go back to the issue of recruitment or retention.

Another point made was that in some instances gardaí were driving Garda vehicles but they were not sufficiently qualified to utilise them in an advanced way. For example, they were constrained to the speed limit and could not turn on the flashing blue lights or the siren. In effect, they had one hand tied behind their backs in the sense that they were trying to deal with emerging incidents, and were actually coming under attack themselves in some cases, but lacked the powers they should enjoy as members of law enforcement, possibly because of their probationer status. I know that was mentioned in some of the commentary at the time. To an extent, it comes back to the Estimates in the context of whether they have the equipment, training, support and resources to support them in the field. If not, what do we need to do to address that?