Cecilia Keaveney (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 1202: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when the Garda Síochána will be more visible on the streets of our towns and villages given the prevalence of public nuisance and the value of community policing in general; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2373/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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Every effort is made to provide a high visibility presence throughout the country's towns and villages. Garda management states that uniform and detective units and divisional traffic corps, supplemented by community policing units and Garda mountain bike units — all of which provide a highly visible local presence — continue to police the community and to take a proactive approach to addressing anti-social and public disorder issues by way of immediate intervention, arrest and prosecution, or advice as appropriate.

Members of the Garda Síochána are in frequent contact with other Government and non-government agencies, particularly local authorities, in order to facilitate a multi-agency approach to addressing criminal issues including anti-social behaviour and public disorder, such as the introduction of by-laws regarding drinking in public places. This liaison will continue.

Recently I also announced that the Commissioner is reserving €5 million of his €83.5 million overtime budget in 2006 for an extension of Operation Encounter which is an ongoing public order and visible policing initiative. In this stepped-up programme, gardaí will be more intensively deployed on foot and cycle patrols at areas where there are major movements of people such as schools, shops, major traffic intersections and so forth.

The timescale for achieving a record Garda Síochána strength of 14,000, in line with the commitment in an Agreed Programme for Government, remains as when I announced the Government approval in October 2004 for my proposals to achieve this objective. This phased increase in force strength will lead to a combined strength, of both attested gardaí and recruits in training, of 14,000 by the end of this year. As part of the accelerated recruitment campaign to facilitate this process, 1,125 Garda recruits were inducted to the Garda College during 2005. The college will induct 1,100 recruits this year and a further 1,100 in 2007, by way of intakes to the Garda College of approximately 275 recruits every quarter. This project is fully on target and will be achieved.

The Commissioner will draw up plans on how best to distribute and manage these additional resources. These will be targeted at the areas of greatest need, as is envisaged in the programme for Government. The programme identifies in particular areas with a significant drugs problem and significant public order offences, but it will be possible to address other priorities as well, such as the need to increase significantly the number of gardaí allocated to traffic duties as part of the Garda traffic corps. I have already promised that the additional gardaí will not be put on administrative duties. They will be put directly into frontline, operational, high visibility policing where they will make a real impact.