Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is Comical Ali stuff. The Garda Síochána press office has stated: "... the highest standards for all ... Gardaí will be maintained. Vetting standards for Garda trainees remain the same." They do not remain the same. They are different. Similar to the housing statistics, this was done as a political ploy in order to ensure numbers got bumped up and trainees were taken in last December, which I pointed out last year. It is not the same standard. The Minister needs to guarantee on the floor of the House that people are not currently training in Templemore who should not be. Gardaí and their representative bodies, who are very concerned about standards not being maintained, have come to me from across the country on this.

We also have to think about the people who are training and working with trainees at Templemore. The people who enter Templemore need to be vetted to the same standard as they always have been. At the end of the day, the Garda does the vetting. If it cannot maintain those standards, what hope have we regarding everyone else? I have asked this question of every Department and agency throughout the country. Not one has come back to me and said that it is changing its vetting standards, but An Garda Síochána can? The public is not buying this. People are worried about it.

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