Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I suppose there are a few certainties after tonight. The first is that the Mullingar accord did not feature here tonight. The second is that the Minister has been very forthright in his honest assessment and appraisal of Garda numbers over the past nine to ten years, during the lifetime of previous Governments and going forward into the lifetime of the next Government when, I hope, this Government will continue in office.

The Minister set out his stall and will honour the Government's commitment. If we had the senior Opposition spokesperson on justice in the other House, according to what he said last week, this might take 25 years. The only suggestion I heard him make was to increase the Garda retirement age. The Minister advocates an extension to the Garda recruitment age at the other end of the scale. We should recruit young, vibrant, dynamic and diverse people into the Garda force, which current society needs.