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

I entirely agree with the Deputy. The public is entitled to effective policing. The public is getting effective policing because if the Deputy examines the Central Statistics Office figures, the most recent figures published show that crime is effectively down in 11 of the 14 crime categories. In the context of burglary, if one compares the last quarter of 2012 with the last quarter of 2011, there was a reduction of 11% in the number of burglaries that took place in the State. In the context of the interventions that have taken place, the targeted operations by An Garda Síochána have been extremely effective in addressing issues of criminality in the State. The Garda Síochána, and in particular the Garda Commissioner and those working with him, have my full support in the important work they are doing.

I wish that we were in a different environment, that we were flaithiúlach with money and that we did not have a fiscal and economic crisis for the Government to address. I also wish that in 2013 I did not have a budget in my Department which has €163 million less available across the entire justice sector when compared with the funding available to me in 2011. Unfortunately, a magic pot of money does not exist. There is an obligation on the State to bring our public expenditure in the context of the public wage bill down and under control. It is in the interests of the entire country that we achieve that outcome so that we resolve our fiscal difficulties and that we can focus entirely on economic growth. That is an issue that is central to the objectives of the Government: to get people back into employment and to reduce public expenditure. I want to get people recruited to the Garda force. I can say that categorically to the Deputy but I cannot do that responsibly until I know for certain that the funding is available to pay the salaries of the new recruits I want to see being trained in Templemore college.

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