Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

He should listen to people like Deputy Flanagan on both sides of the House. I remind the House that 630 gardaí are involved in community policing throughout the country. The more gardaí are redeployed within the overall force to deal solely with specific issues, the greater the dilution of the ability of gardaí to deal with ordinary day-to-day policing issues. While we need specialised gardaí to deal with some issues, it is important to realise that the force also has to look after other policing duties.

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