Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

——to open up 1900 additional prison places, to bring Garda numbers up to 12,500 and now to 14,000. We had to make a considerable investment in Templemore training college to provide the necessary facilities. The policy was also to resource the Garda properly, both in terms of existing staff, overtime rates and equipment. Allowing for the population increase, the figures do not show that crime rates have increased, except in some areas, which I accept.

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