Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

If it will take over six years to get 2,000 full-time trained gardaí in place but 900 reserve gardaí will be in place by September of this year it is no wonder the Garda Síochána considers this a yellow pack reserve force. Gardaí have complained they have only one pair of summer trousers, one pair of winter trousers, and that they have to provide their own torch batteries, use their own mobiles and only have analogue telecommunications. They are totally under-resourced but the Minister is ploughing ahead with this force.

Why should they not expect the worst in this respect considering that no prior consultation has taken place with the force? Consultation is only now about to commence. The Garda has organised a series of meetings around the country. Senator Maurice Hayes has given his implementation report on the Garda Síochána Act 2005, which does not include any reference to the implementation of the Garda reserve. Could we not provide the 2,000 extra gardaí to give reassurance to the Garda that it will not be babysitting an inadequately trained reserve force that is imposed on it and that the major components of the Garda Síochána Bill will be up and running? In the meantime we can have a process of consultation with the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, and the pilot scheme can be put in place so we can all see where we are going on this important issue. I agree with the Minister that we have all supported this in principle but we need to put the nuts and bolts of it together properly.

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