Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Before I turn to the Order of Business, I would like to take up something very briefly. On Tuesday the Taoiseach sought to misrepresent the basis on which I had made a statement regarding Garda numbers and falling detection rates, suggesting that I knew that there had been a cull of Dublin Garda stations to strengthen the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. I had no such knowledge, and last night the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform embellished that by suggesting that I had tabled a narrow technical question to produce an extremely misleading impression.

I categorically reject that. The replies to the two questions in which I sought information on the strength of the Dublin metropolitan area were presented in the way in which the Minister had always presented it. In the first of those two questions, I sought information on the central units that operated in the Dublin metropolitan area. However, the Minister's reply read as follows.

There are no central units of the DMA. [...] A number of national units are located in the Dublin metropolitan area [...] These units provide specialised policing services on a nationwide basis and the tables above do not include the members included in these units.

I used the format in which the Dublin metropolitan area's strength has always been presented, the end-of-December figures that the Minister used to indicate Garda strength. I reject the Taoiseach's attempt to misrepresent my position and the follow-up by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, in his letter to all Deputies.

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