David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. As I said, the Government is fully committed to ensuring that An Garda Síochána has the necessary resources and training to tackle all forms of criminality in our communities. I assure Deputies that, as confirmed by the Garda Commissioner, arrangements are currently in place with detective personnel to ensure the capacity and capability of An Garda Síochána to respond to an armed or critical incident in Cork city and its environs on a 24-7 basis. Training, equipment and personnel capacity of the regional armed response units and the emergency response unit are kept under constant review with a view to ensuring their functional capacity is kept at the optimal level. On foot of that continual review, a competition to select, train and allocate additional personnel for the regional armed response unit outside the Dublin metropolitan region has recently been commenced by Garda management. In the interim, the Commissioner has advised the Minister that tactical-awareness training, including the provision of equipment, is ongoing for the southern region for detective garda personnel. Furthermore, discussions are in train with the relevant authorities for the training of the next tranche of identified personnel. It is expected that this training will commence shortly. The Deputy is quite correct that these are serious matters. I thank him for raising this issue. It is important that the arrangements be kept under constant review. The Minister is anxious to do this with the Garda Commissioner to ensure we have the required capability and capacity.

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