Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to see the Minister opposing, in effect, the position being argued by the Tánaiste. I want to make some points about tasers because this is part of the debate now. The Garda Representative Association, GRA, has supported arming gardaí with tasers. That would be a step in the wrong direction. In the United States, more than 1,000 people have been killed by police, the bulk of them since 2000, through the use of tasers. Some 90% of those victims were unarmed. This applies particularly to vulnerable groups, such as children, pregnant people, elderly people and people who would be particularly thin. It is possible to recognise all of those things but you cannot identify people who have a history of heart disease or seizures or who have pacemakers and so on. What is the Minister's position on the question of tasers in particular?

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