Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday was a busy day for Government. As on every Tuesday when the Dáil is in session we had a Cabinet meeting. There were 31 items on the Cabinet agenda yesterday, so many items that we had to have a morning meeting and an evening meeting. The items ranged from the Collins report to the discussion on Russia to abortion legislation, so while the Opposition may be obsessed with Government communications, I can totally reassure the House that the Government is obsessed with getting its work done. After we have got it done, then we communicate and that is the way things should be done.

The crime statistics produced by the CSO were only published at 11 a.m. this morning. I have not had a chance to study them or review them at this stage, because we have had less than an hour to do so, but in the first instance I welcome the fact the CSO is once again producing crime statistics, albeit under reservation, because statistics are important. What we do not measure we cannot improve, so it is important that we have good statistics that are accurate, that are comparable and that appear frequently and periodically. Even though they are under reservation, it is welcome that those statistics are becoming available again.

In terms of resources, an additional 800 gardaí are going to be recruited this year. That is on addition to the 600 extra gardaí recruited last year. About 500 civilians will be recruited to the Garda throughout the course of this year as well. That will allow more gardaí to do front-line work while civilians can do other work on their behalf. Our aim is to have a Garda force that is 14,000 strong by the end of this year and we are confident that can be achieved. There is also additional investment, as Members will know, in Garda vehicles and IT systems, which I think will be essential in improving PULSE data and making sure that it is accurate and up to date.

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