Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

With fewer resources in 2010 than we had in 2009, it will be a difficult year in respect of the overall budget and Garda numbers. I know Deputy Rabbitte will support me when I say that my number one priority is to ensure we have as many gardaí in the force as possible. My priority in the coming year is to keep Garda numbers as high as possible given that they now stand at 14,634. By the end of the year there will be 14,700, an all-time high. That number may reduce over the coming year but I hope that I will get the Deputy's support to ensure that, while there may be funding difficulties in the Department, I can concentrate my funding on keeping up the level of gardaí. Ultimately the question of how many are designated as community gardaí is a matter for the Commissioner. He and I formally launched the new model of community policing in Ballyfermot a few months ago. He is committed to keeping the number of dedicated community gardaí as high as possible.

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