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

And older, perhaps. We need to make it worth everybody's while, at the same time.

On transport, the allocation will be in addition to what we have. The aircraft will be of higher capability, particularly in dealing with our international partners and having the ability to focus on particular types of criminal activity that we cannot focus on given the types of aircraft we have. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, €23 million was spent last year. There is funding to be spent this year in this area, and that is being worked through. It has been sought by the Garda, particularly for dealing with issues like organised crime and drug smuggling. Having the technology and equipment in question will be very beneficial and show our international and European partners we are serious in this regard.

On the diversity strategy, while there is no specific increase in the budget, there is a budget within the Garda Vote more generally for campaigning and diversity. The Chair is correct that it is not focused on gender balance alone. In the most recent campaigns, fewer women have applied than in others. I am not sure why. Perhaps there has been a greater focus on assaults of gardaí. There might be reasons but it is really important that we continue in the positive way that has seen significant numbers of women join. By comparison with other European countries and countries farther afield, we did extremely well in years gone by. There is a specific diversity strategy within An Garda focusing on newer communities, whereby gardaí are engaging with communities from which members of An Garda would not traditionally have been recruited, be those new Irish communities or others. That has resulted in a slight increase but we need to do more. There is also a trainee programme and engagement with schools with a specific focus on diversity. I met a group of students last year for their graduation and it was really positive that many of them wanted to join An Garda or were considering some form of work involving the organisation. To be able to expand that would be really positive. This is being considered and I hope there will be potential. When people have a chance to see how a profession operates, they are more likely to enter it. There is work being done in this area but I would like to see diversity expand much quicker.