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

I agree and like I said, I will make sure that the Minister, Deputy Martin, is aware of the view that we both hold.

On Deputy Ó Murchú's question regarding the new policing model, my understanding is that it is being piloted in a number of areas. Once that is done, there will be a review. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, might be able to inform the Deputy a bit more about how that is going.

On the Garda roster, all of us can understand why the Covid roster is attractive. It is four days on and four days off, and there is also annual leave and public holidays. It is a very attractive roster in terms of work-life balance. However, it was for the Covid period and there are very few people, if anyone else in Ireland - certainly in the public service - who are still operating on a Covid roster. The difficulty that has been caused is that a lot of the time, gardaí are less available or not available when we need them to be. We have more gardaí than we had five years ago but everyone would agree that gardaí are less available than they were. That is not all down to the Covid roster but certainly, the Garda Commissioner has the view that it is part of the problem. This issue can be resolved by negotiation and that is how it should be done. The Garda Representative Association fought Government very hard to gain access to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. That is where these things can be sorted out. There is potential there for a new agreed roster which could then be balloted on. I encourage the Garda Representative Association to go to the WRC, allow this to be negotiated properly, and then put to ballot a revised roster. Perhaps there is a hybrid roster that might work.

On Deputy Durkan's question around National Development Plan, NDP delivery, there are a lot of different steps on the way to getting a project done. They take time. There is, of course, the whole planning and design part of the process. Sometimes that ends up in the courts and sometimes it does not. Then there is the whole tender process and then the actual construction and commissioning. Part of the role I gave the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, in the Cabinet reshuffle back in December was that enhanced role of NDP delivery, making sure that projects happen and happen more quickly. I am very frustrated, and everyone in the House is frustrated, by how long it takes some projects to get done. We need to improve that.

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