Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I understand the Deputy's point. She is saying that if a local population believes it is under-policed and that, by making complaints, it will compile on paper a case for further gardaí to be allocated to its area, it might be tempted to make such complaints. However, the Commissioner must obviously adopt an objective approach and not just a view based on the fact that a certain group of residents is advised by the Deputy to adopt a particular course of action in respect of crime in its area. The Commissioner is obliged when deploying gardaí across the country to make the maximum use of those members. Population growth in the Deputy's constituency has been considerable in recent times and therefore the Commissioner is paying particular attention to such areas. It is in such areas that the proportion of gardaí to residents has declined most.

If there had been no expansion in the force or extra recruitment since 1997 — there has been — many rural areas would now be in the process of being denuded of gardaí to move them to areas such as the Deputy's constituency. We are not in that position at present.

There are two ways to deal with Garda numbers, the first of which is to recruit more gardaí. This is happening despite all the argument and allegations of spin.

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