Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

It is time we invited the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to the House to discuss Garda numbers and recent media reports which indicate huge variations throughout the country in the ratio of gardaí to local population. This is worrying. In the Carlow-Kildare division, the ratio is one garda per 600 people while in Cork the ratio is one garda per 200 people. The Minister should come to the Seanad to explain why there is such a huge variation.

Will the Leader congratulate the Minister for Foreign Affairs on his new appointment as UN envoy to the EU? He will be the eyes and ears of Kofi Annan. Hopefully, the Minister will have more success with that task than he had when he was sent to look up trees in north County Dublin. He might have learned lessons from that.