Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the intention to recruit, but I would like us to do our figures on this. Am I right to assume we are 407 members short of the commitment to maintain a force of 9,500?

Am I to expect, therefore, that the Minister will honour his commitment of maintaining the force at 9,500? The Minister of State has referred to financial constraints. Our understanding was that, notwithstanding the financial constraints, we had an agreement on the part of the Minister that the forces would stand at 9,500. One would expect therefore that the 400 plus personnel that are required to bring the number up to 9,500 would be recruited as soon as possible and that they would be recruited in the course of 2013.

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