Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

To follow up Senator Dardis's point regarding noxious weeds, we had much less ragwort than now when the Garda was involved in this area. This created a certain fear among people as regards that noxious weed.

I compliment the Minister on securing an increase in the number of gardaí, about which we hear nothing. Once the Minister obtained Government approval for funding to increase the force to more than 14,000 members by 2007 to meet the commitments in the programme for Government agreed in 2002, newspapers, radio, other media and the Opposition suddenly lost interest. We no longer hear a word spoken about the Minister's great achievement of securing agreement to increase the strength of the Garda to its highest level in the history of the State. As he stated, if he had not achieved this result, gardaí in rural areas would have been transferred to larger urban areas. I congratulate the Minister and his officials on their achievement.

In light of the number of additional gardaí who will be recruited, will it be necessary, on reflection, to recruit an auxiliary force to support the Garda Síochána? The Garda Representative Association made a detailed submission to the Minister in November. I request that he hold discussions with the GRA on the proposal in section 14 to recruit an auxiliary force. The goodwill of the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors will be required to achieve the Minister's objective to recruit a support force. We do not want a two-tier system to develop in which the auxiliary force and the Garda Síochána proper would not co-operate. I understand departmental officials propose to meet the GRA in the next few weeks and the Minister may have further information in this regard on Report Stage.

The Fine Gael Party opposes a volunteer force and seeks instead a divisional panel or reserve. I do not see much difference between its proposal and the Minister's.