Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I made no disparaging comments about individual officers of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which is a corporate entity with a culture of its own. I know many people who work there. If people find out whom I know there, that will probably end their promotion prospects. Nevertheless, those whom I know there are the same as the rest of us. This is nothing to do with individuals. It is a culture and corporate ethos that has been there for as long as I have been here. When the Minister described the Peter Berry period, he described what I believe still to be the residual view there. Anyone who deals with the extraordinary immigration service and its two hours a week on the telephone knows it is still unique in how it deals with the rest of the world. I was not attacking individual civil servants. I do not do that, and I was not doing so in this case; I was talking about the "entity", if I might choose a neutral word.

On the amendments, I will not try to rejig what we did months ago. I very much identify with what Senator Maurice Hayes said. Properly constituted, defined and trained, a Garda reserve can be a great entrée into communities — the best possible way for the Garda force. I am a little worried about amendment No. 37.