Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

There are gardaí in specialist units, whether involved in security, serious crime, national immigration bureau or plain clothes work, who are not publically visible. The gardaí who are visible are not restricted to the category of community policeman. It is not the case that only gardaí on patrol or on bicycles are community policemen. The presence of gardaí in the community is not solely or exclusively dependent on community policemen. That is an incontestable fact.

I do not wish to have a "dialogue of the deaf" but I do wish to point out that community police perform an extremely valuable role in accessing local intelligence and liaising with local residents, but many of these problems are well identified and require a stronger and more vigorous Garda presence so they can be tackled than a solitary community policeman. They also require the deployment of far more substantial resources than a community policeman.

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