Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Would the Minister like to make a statement regarding Twitter and what it has said? I do not know if anyone asked that question already. Will the Minister give me a definition of what she considers the far right?

Regarding the attestations taking place, on 29 November on the Fine Gael website, there was a post saying that the Minister for Justice, Deputy Helen McEntee, had fast tracked the attestation of trainee gardaí in Templemore. This would mean there would be more gardaí for Christmas. However, this morning, the Minister said that she never made this claim. I would like clarification on this matter.

Regarding the number of gardaí, I do not know how we are going to do better on this and I do not envy the Minister in this task. To date this year, 237 recruits have passed out from Templemore. That is all we would have had if the class of 153 passing out next week had not been fast tracked. This class would not have been coming until January. In reality this year, the figure would have been 237, which is not great. I know this year there are 637, but at this moment in time, if we had not fast tracked those coming out on 15 December week, the figure would have been 237.

That is something I would like the Minister to deal with as well.

I am also concerned about all our commuter towns, towns and villages around the country. If gardaí are summonsed to come to Dublin, where does that leave our communities with regard to policing? I am concerned about that because we have had many burglaries in and around our areas over the past two weeks.

Those are the questions I would like the Minister to answer.