Mr. Justin Kelly:

I was an inspector out in Clondalkin myself not too long ago. I know the area quite well. We have a comprehensive foundation level training programme for our new recruits and as part of that, we bring in NGOs and people who are involved in the area of rehabilitation to talk to them.

That is the first thing we do. Relationships at community policing level are important to us. Deputy Ward gave an example of two gardaí who left to join addiction services. While that is a loss to the Garda, it shows the motivation of some of the officers we have.

Treat drug addicts humanely is key for us. Only the week before last, I visited the Garda College where I had the opportunity to speak to a brand-new cohort of Garda trainees. There were several hundred of them and I had a few key messages for them. One was on how important it is in policing, that when gardaí interact with people who are in difficult situations, they treat them humanely. The key message from me is that even one bad interaction causes untold reputational harm to the organisation. It is one that senior management is trying to reinforce with our officers.