Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My first engagement was, obviously, with An Garda Síochána, working with it to make sure that it had what it needed to respond not only that Thursday but also over the weekend and into the following week. The school that was affected by this awful tragedy immediately received a response from the Department of Education, which is experienced in dealing with these types of scenarios, albeit, I am sure, not this exact type of scenario, which we hope never to see again. NEPS was on site immediately. The Minister for Education herself was engaging, and over the weekend I engaged with gardaí to understand the plans they had in place for the school in the coming week. It was on the Monday that I engaged with the principal to make sure the school was happy with the response and what was happening. I have engaged with him at a number of stages since then as well as with trustees. More recently, this week, I met with the parents. That was very much guided by them. Everything I have done has been guided by what they want and how they wanted to engage, and that will remain the case.

More broadly, many Members on the ground have engaged with the community. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, Deputies McDonald and Hourigan and others have responded and engaged with the community groups and organisations. I have made myself available too. If they wish to engage with me, I am happy to do so.

I have engaged with representatives of the business community as well. I met with them last Thursday as part of the DublinTown organisation. Quite a number of different groups are involved. I engaged further last Saturday with the businesses to reassure them of my support. Gardaí attended those meetings as well to make sure that whatever support they needed was on the ground and with them. I am very much guided by the community and those who were impacted by what happened. I continue to be guided in that regard, and they know they have my support and that of the Garda, which is keeping me continually updated as to what is happening.

As regards Garda resources, the Commissioner and I were clear at the outset that we would have five classes this year to try to make sure we could get as many people as possible into training. That is the overall objective, whatever the date is. There are people coming out of the college next Friday and going straight into work on Saturday. It is not ideal for them, but we need our gardaí out and our new trainees in. The fifth class will go in on St. Stephen's Day. Their main work will begin in the new year. It is good that we now have a class starting off and that their training will start at the beginning of the year instead of being delayed even further. While I do not know the exact figures, 637 have gone into the classes to date. I think one has dropped off from the second class. There will always be a little dropoff, but we are on track to have between 700 and 800, and that is only a positive thing.

The retirement age is not my final decision but that of the Minister for public expenditure and reform. The body of work that needed to be done is done, and engagement is happening now. I do not have a definite date because it is not within my remit to give the committee one, but I do know that we are on track to having a positive decision. I know people want that. I want that as soon as possible because I know this impacts people the longer it goes on. People are being missed in the extension.

We do not want to see anybody retire early or resign early. Obviously, there are members who are retiring just because of their age and because they want to do so and have served their time. They are absolutely entitled to do that. With anybody who leaves early, however, it is important we understand and know why. The associations and Garda senior management have been doing exit interviews to understand what people are saying and to be able to respond and to make changes where necessary. This is 1% of the overall force. In other police forces across the world, it is about 3%, so our rate of people leaving is much lower. We have a full employment market as well, and that has an impact, but that is not in any way to move away from the fact that some people are leaving because of issues within the job. The Commissioner has been clear in saying we need to be able to respond to and to deal with any issues that people are claiming are reasons they have left. As I said, it is 1%. It is much lower than in other areas, but we do not want to see anybody leave, so I will support the Commissioner in whatever he needs to be able to respond to that.