Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

At least the Minister acknowledged that my party opposed the reserve from day one. We recognise that we were out-voted on that.

At this stage, I want to minimise the damage the Minister intends to do. With that in mind, I recognise that the Minister is engaged, in his view, with the stakeholders in consultation. The problem is that the Garda representative associations are not the only stakeholders in this. One of the main stakeholders is obviously the community. Would the Minister agree that the community is the ultimate stakeholder in all of this? Why has the Minister not engaged in formal and meaningful consultation with NGOs and community sector representatives such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the likes of Fr. McVerry and people who have raised concerns about the reserve force, the police force and its class basis in general? If he intends to do so, will he immediately initiate consultation with those bodies and not proceed any further until the outcome of those consultations?

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