Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

That is good. That is not a problem. I acknowledge that. I was not sure of the date. I also submitted parliamentary questions to the then Minister, Mr. Dermot Ahern. We did not have Friday sittings then. I acknowledged the Government for having Friday sittings. I did not have that facility during the previous Government. I wished the Government well in its endeavours.

The previous Minister promised me the sun, moon and stars. He said the same as the Minister did today, that the Garda Commissioner was examining the issue. The Garda Commissioner does not have the resources to deal with the issue, as Deputy Tom Fleming indicated. That is something in which the Minister should be more interested. I met a Garda inspector at a function last Sunday. He told me that some of his officers are now walking because they do not have cars because of a silly arrangement - perhaps it was before the Minister's time - with the officials in the Department that Garda cars must be put off the road after reaching 300,000 miles. Surely such cars could be given an NCT or DOE test like anyone's car and if they pass they could continue to do routine patrol work if not high-speed chases. This is another farcical situation from the mandarins in the Department. The problem might have been due to Ford Ireland, which had the contract to supply the cars but then lost it. I do not know nor do I care but I do not want to see members of the Garda reduced to walking around the constituency. It might be acceptable in the Minister's constituency or in any city area but not in the country because gardaí need the tools of the trade and they must be empowered to do their job. We are trying to help them by introducing legislation, not decorative legislation.

The Minister could not have picked a more ignorant word to describe the Bill. Decorative items are being stolen, which we mentioned, from Holy Cross Abbey and that wonderful monument to the dead in County Laois. Those artefacts are decorative and were made by craftspeople but the legislation is not decorative. I ask the Minister to withdraw the word "decorative" in connection with the Bill because while it could be described as sensitive or necessary it is certainly not decorative.

I challenge the Minister to check on the replies he gave to my parliamentary questions. He asserted that I should know about pawnbrokers' legislation but never once when I asked the Minister about the matter in parliamentary questions did he refer to such legislation.

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