Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is a misreading of my comments. Sometimes people get the impression that vetting is extremely comprehensive in terms of the background of a person. It is not as comprehensive as people might believe. The big cry in the House for quite a while now has been for more gardaí, getting more people into training and so on. I will ask the Minister for Justice to reply to the Deputy more comprehensively and specifically in respect of Templemore, but I think we need to reflect on things generally. That is the spirit of the rhetorical question I put back to the Deputy last week. I know people may say I am against this or that, but I am not. I am simply trying to have a reasonable discussion on issues of this kind. I remember during Covid when were screaming to get people to do things in a public health emergency, and people were saying we could not do that because the vetting would take three months. We did not have three months during Covid. I have no issue with vetting - none - but we need more gardaí and more training places. I will ask the Minister to talk to the Deputy in respect of the specific issue in Templemore and where we are going forward.

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