Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I mean rental supplements. It would be desirable to have members of the Garda Síochána resident in every neighbourhood, if that were possible. However, it is not that easy. Gardaí are free to choose where they want to live. It is not that easy for somebody in the Phoenix Park or St. Stephen's Green to think up some scheme to encourage them to live where they do not want to live. If we were told by somebody else that we lived in one place rather than another, we might begin to query the right of people to tell us where to live.

The suggestions we had about the reservists and recruitment criteria were probably more apt than providing rent subsidies to live in a particular area. It is an advantage for politicians to live in the area they represent. In my constituency somebody who conspicuously did not do that paid a heavy price.