Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

——and must prosecute cases and it is part of their job. They go back onto the streets, prosecute again and return to the court. Deputy Gilmore suggests they should not be in the courts but out on the streets while at the same time asking me the level of prosecution of offences. For an offence to be prosecuted, under our law the person who makes the arrest must go to court and make the case. It is called due process and gardaí will continue to do this.

I am not trying to get to Deputy Gilmore either. All I am doing is giving the information prepared by another public servant in response to the queries raised. The response is that the office is confident that it can achieve the 3% payroll cut without having an adverse impact on frontline prosecution services.

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