Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

It is very rare that I agree with the GRA or the AGSI, but both organisations stated recently that the experiment with the Garda reserve has been a costly failure to date. Given the lack of impact of the members of the reserve force, how can the Minister stand over the significant spending on this service? Is the Minister aware that the cost to date is in the region of €500,000, almost €135,000 of which was spent on advertising alone? Has the Minister given full consideration to the cost of engaging a chief superintendent, a superintendent, several sergeants and a large number of other gardaí in the training and supervision of this tiny reserve force? Does he agree that the Garda reserve will not and cannot be a substitute for full-time, trained gardaí? The Minister should concentrate on civilianisation to ensure that gardaí are more effective, are on the beat and deal directly with crime.

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