Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Tánaiste and echo her point about the Criminal Assets Bureau. In terms of staffing allocations, in the five years in which we saw a haemorrhaging of numbers in the divisional drug units, the Criminal Assets Bureau kept the number of gardaí allocated to it and its budget remained relatively stable. That was a portion of justice policy that delivered and kept the priority in place in terms of funding and staff. In contrast, the divisional drug unit numbers are really shocking in that we have seen massive reductions across the board. Some counties have no drug unit whatsoever, which gives carte blancheto dealers to operate at whatever level they want. I recognise there has been an increase in recruitment but it needs to be prioritised, as was the Criminal Assets Bureau, in order that we keep proper staffing thresholds in place to address what will be a constant matter for us all.

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