Two weeks ago I attended a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights to hear Commissioner Pat Byrne and two of his colleagues make presentations. I was interested to hear Commissioner Byrne say he loved to hear the public, in particular politicians, talk about the 4,000 gardaí who were sitting behind desks in Garda stations pushing pens rather than being out on the streets. He said that was a myth. In some ways the whole notion of gardaí not being on the streets is a little exaggerated.