Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

The ruthless killing of a 64 year old grandmother has shocked the nation. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform reiterated a commitment that was given in the programme for Government to go ahead with the appointment of 2,000 extra gardaí. I hope we will see a timeframe for the phased introduction of these extra gardaí because the Garda training depot at Templemore does not have the capacity to cope with such a dramatic expansion of places. I would like to think that the Minister's intent is serious and not necessarily linked to the forthcoming local elections in June. I look forward to the Minister outlining his programme for extra gardaí.

The smoking ban has been very successful and anyone who visited pubs and restaurants over the past two weeks will have seen a noticeable difference. The ban has improved the whole situation. An Oireachtas Member from my area, Deputy John Cregan, said that these reforms amounted to the introduction of a police state, but I regard the smoking ban as an enlightened move. The co-operation of smokers is evident from the fact that people congregate outside pubs and restaurants to smoke. However, if anyone was listening to the radio this morning, they would have heard an eminent surgeon from St. James's Hospital say that in his clinic on Monday morning, of six people with broken jaw bones arising from weekend incidents, three were smokers who were assaulted outside pubs. It is an unfortunate trend for this type of assault to occur as a result ofsmokers abiding by the law and co-operating with the ban. I know some Government Senators are smiling but I regard this——