Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I put it to the Minister that his principal response to the weekend atrocity was to have a meeting convened between himself, the Taoiseach — his boss — and the Garda Commissioner, after which all three parties said it was more or less business as usual and that there was no need for extra resources, a change in the law or any emergency action. This seemed to be the consistent Government response undertaken by his predecessors — a meeting and no further action.

With regard to the meeting, did the Minister discuss with the Garda Commissioner and the Taoiseach the consequences of the cut in the budget of the DPP that led to an unprecedented public appearance by the DPP in which he stated it would be impossible for his office to deal with State prosecutions in the manner in which he would like? Did he discuss with the Garda Commissioner and the Taoiseach that the intake of Garda trainees will be significantly cut from this month, giving rise to a situation where what the Minister has said in respect of Garda numbers is in the past and that from next year gardaí coming out of Templemore will be doing so in far lower numbers than has been the case because of a budgetary cutback? Would he agree that budgetary cutbacks will impact severely on the fight against crime at a time when resources were never more needed in the war against the drug barons?

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