Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

The fact that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform this morning correctly decided to apologise to the deputy leader of my party for his rather frenzied remarks of yesterday is something I welcome, albeit that it was done rather late in the day. The spat yesterday highlights a much bigger issue that we need to debate in this House, namely, the number of gardaí currently in the country and their deployment in the various divisions.

I ask the Leader if such a debate can be organised as there are serious issues around this matter. During the past eight years our population has grown by 500,000 people, there has been an explosion in gun crime and an epidemic of cocaine has hit our streets. We need an independent assessment of the total number of gardaí and officers employed in this State and of where they should be deployed. In my constituency 15 officers transferred from the local station in Tallaght last year. The levels of crime in Dublin 24 and Dublin 4 are not comparable. We need an independent assessment of this matter away from the spat of yesterday. It is important that such a debate take place in this House because the Garda needs to be resourced. We need additional police officers on the ground and police officers operating away from their desks in the front line of duty.

One proposal I put forward to the Government is to allow police officers to remain in place after the age of 55. The idea that all gardaí must be shunted out of the Garda Síochána once they have reached the age of 55 is ridiculous given the current circumstances. A debate would allow much light to be thrown on the possible options that face the Garda going forward and that is something to which I would like to contribute.

Will the Leader ask the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Parlon, to come back to the House to update us on the current position on decentralisation and the problems experienced in FÁS, which is on the brink of a major industrial action. The reason for that is the fact that promotional blackmail is being put forward by the management, supported by the Government, in respect of people who have to move to another part of the country. When decentralisation was proposed initially it was based on volunteering — people had to volunteer if they wanted to move but now people are being blackmailed into moving. That is wrong and that is the reason we need to debate this matter.