Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Garda Síochána has approximately the same number of vehicles as it had at the height of the Celtic tiger in 2007. By the end of this year, we will have acquired more than 200 cars. Some 42 vehicles were acquired in the spring and 170 more have been purchased since. A considerable number of them will be commissioned and on the roads in December, with the remainder in January. I do not want to give the Deputies any advance news of budgetary matters but I assure them there will be a reasonably substantial sum available in 2013 for the acquisition of additional Garda vehicles, which I am relatively confident we will be able to purchase during the year. There is a perspective on this and it was not a once-off purchase. In the context of the financial legacy I inherited, and the difficulties we experienced, the reason we have €3 million for vehicles is efficiencies we effected during the year. My Department facilitated identifying that sum of money as being available and next year we will have a sum earmarked for purchases.

Operation Fiacla operates across the country while Operation Acer is focused on Dublin. Some 2,500 arrests were made under Operation Fiacla, with 1,400 charges brought. That accounts for the statistics to mid-October, and I presume that, by the end of this month, I will have new information.

Yesterday's report examined those who received an order in 2007. It related to those who were on probation simpliciter or who were the recipients of community service orders in 2007 and examined the extent to which they reoffended. Since 2007, a number of changes have been made, which I hope will show better results. One can look at these results in different ways. The Irish Independent looked at them in a particular way. For people disposed of, either put under supervision orders through the Probation Service or engaged in community service, the recidivism level was 37.2%. Considering the comparators of those imprisoned for the first time, the number who are recidivist over a period of two to four years is actually higher than that. One can look at the figures every which way. Unfortunately, when people are imprisoned or otherwise disposed of, there is no certainty they will not reoffend. This was the first time this type of research has been done. We need more information on recidivism from people who have been imprisoned.

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