Mr. Drew Harris:

The Senator raised a point on the visibility of policing in Dublin city centre. That was in response to a specific operation we put in place to answer public concerns about the visibility of An Garda Síochána in our capital. However, we recognise that other cities will wish to make similar applications for personnel. The happy position I am in, though I do not want to create a hostage to fortune for the individual who succeeds me, is that we are a growing organisation and we can make commitments around visibility in the future. Our recruitment is on a strong basis now and as we recruit we will deploy.

The issue of the Dublin metropolitan region, DMR, is that it often gets trainee or probationary gardaí to allow consequentials to happen. That is often the specialties but it is also to allow other transfers, often to such places as Cork, as the Senator can imagine, and other divisions. There is a constant churn of people in an organisation of 14,300. That is ongoing, but we are in the positive position of being financially supported to grow the organisation and we are working our way through how that can happen and how we can meet the Government requirements.