Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy knows, the Commissioner is responsible for the operational decisions for An Garda Síochána. Of course, he is committed to protecting communities and ensuring that An Garda Síochána is as impactful as it can be. As I said earlier, the Commissioner is meeting with Garda representative bodies tomorrow to try to make progress on the roster issue. The Minister met with those representative bodies today. Let us give those meetings some time and space to try to make progress. My understanding is that it certainly is not the intention that any Garda members who are formally appointed to specialist units as part of the reintroduction of an agreed roster will happen. Therefore, let us allow the Commissioner the time and space to do his job and work with the representative bodies tomorrow, which hopefully can find a way forward. As I said earlier, the industrial relations machinery of the State in the form of the Workplace Relations Commission is there to be helpful if that is useful in terms of getting agreement on a way forward.

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