Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform does not decide the security arrangements at any event. Such decisions are for the operational judgment of gardaí under the Commissioner. I am not consulted in advance and have no input into Garda security arrangements. I do not micro-manage them. The strength of the Garda Síochána at either event or at any other is not dictated by me so my priorities are not skewed.

I note the Deputy said he has nothing to go on since I gave no figures or costs. He has nothing to go on anyway because his point is flawed. More gardaí were not deployed at Shannon than at the Love Ulster rally. To say otherwise is not true. The fact that only nine of Deputy Gormley's sympathisers turned up in the middle of the night at Shannon is ex post facto. If 500 of his friends had turned up, he would be the first to say if there had been an incident that I was unprepared for it.

Going back to the Love Ulster events, either this House thinks it is better at policing events than the Garda or it does not. I do not under any circumstances pre-empt the way in which the Garda Síochána chooses to allocate resources save to say that it enjoys unprecedented resources in terms of numbers and money. When the main constituents of the rainbow Government were in office, the number of gardaí fell.

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