James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputies will be fully aware, the Garda Commissioner is independent in terms of deployment of members of An Garda Síochána right across the country, and deploys them where he feels they are best deployed. Garda transfers, again, are an internal matter for the Garda Commissioner and An Garda Síochána. On what Deputy Stanton has raised, I fully agree with him. That is why we are working very hard to get Garda time freed up to focus on front-line work. There has been significant recruitment of civilian staff to free up gardaí. Some of that work will have been done under the Deputy's time as a Minister of State in the Department of Justice. The force is also using more modern technology to reduce garda time spent on administrative work and allow them to focus on dealing with front-line issues. An awful lot of that technology is being rolled out in An Garda Síochána across the country.

See this speech in context