Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank all the witnesses for coming in here today. I know they all have very busy schedules and I can see by the size of their briefing pack that a lot of work has gone into this. I thank them for coming.

I am from a Garda family. My dad was a superintendent in the Garda and my brother is a Garda as well, for full disclosure. That is just to note that any questions I ask are coming from someone who has a deep interest in the Garda and someone who grew up with and was brought up in that family. I know the efforts, difficulties and stresses that come with that. From my time as a town councillor and county councillor, I have worked brilliantly with the local gardaí, be they the community gardaí, who I work very closely with, all the way through to superintendents and chief superintendents in the area. I thank them for all the work they do and want them to know they are very well catered for. On gardaí in north Kildare, we obviously need a lot more of them. North Kildare has a growing population base and the more gardaí we have, the better. We can see the stresses that are on them.

I have a few questions that cover different areas. How does the Commissioner feel Garda morale is at the moment?