Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

There has been no spinning with regard to the issue of the filling of the vacancies because the Government just last week made a decision, on foot of the consent of the Minister for Finance, to release 170 promotions. The Deputy may have seen the publicity. Despite the fact he comes in here and says the Minister has the power to fill these vacancies, the Minister, personally, does not have the power to fill the vacancies in the Garda Síochána-----

See this speech in context