Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

It is important that we keep the training college at full strength. I understand that 690 Garda trainees have been taken into the Garda college this year and that a new Garda recruitment competition is under way. I was in Norway recently and I asked how many policemen were in the country. I was told that there were only 8,000, yet it has a population of 6 million and a land mass that must be 20 or 30 times that of Ireland. Our Government is committed to having more gardaí but I wonder if the people are more law-abiding in other countries or whether those countries manage to make better use of their police forces.

On community employment and the jobs initiative, the average participation rate on CE schemes is expected to be in the region of 22,500 during 2003, with a projected year-end participation rate of 20,000. It is true that there were reductions voted through during the year and we can only await the next Estimates to see what will occur in this respect next year. Some years ago we all recognised that there was a lot of fat in some of the CE schemes, which I feel is now more or less gone. I hope this indicates that the numbers have stabilised because many of the schemes do a lot of good work at local level.

It is important to state that drugs task force activity, child care service provision and projects in RAPID areas are prioritised based on the services provided. As Senator Kett stated, CE places in the health sector—