Ms Antoinette Cunningham:

Access to the Minister needs to be more frequent for the staff associations. That would definitely be the view of AGSI. We see the Minister for our annual conference. We wrote to the Minister on a number of occasions last year, seeking to meet her. They are important issues for An Garda Síochána and access to the Minister needs to happen with far greater frequency.

There is little point in sending letters to the Minister for Justice if we do not see any tangible outcomes because of that. Very real issues have gone on in An Garda Síochána that have been left far too long and we are now seeing the consequences of that. I urge the Minister for Justice to engage far more frequently with the AGSI-----