Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if in view of the acknowledgement by the Garda Commissioner, in his recent speech to the annual conference of the AGSI, that drugs related gun crime requires so many Garda resources to contain that detection rates for other crimes have suffered, he intends to have discussions with the Commissioner with a view to providing additional resources to combat other areas of crime; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15653/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I am in regular contact with the Garda Commissioner to keep the measures and resources for tackling serious crime under continuing review, and to this end I will continue to do ensure that every necessary resource is made available to the Garda Síochána.

In this regard, I have been informed by the Garda authorities that the personnel strength, all ranks, of the Garda Síochána as at 31 March 2006 was 12,439. This compares with a total strength of 10,702, all ranks, as at 30 June 1997 and represents an increase of 1,737, or 16.2%, in the personnel strength of the force during that period.

The recruitment drive to increase the strength of the Garda Síochána to 14,000 members in line with the commitment in An Agreed Programme for Government is fully on target. This will lead to a combined strength of both attested gardaí and recruits in training of 14,000 by the end of this year. The first group of newly attested gardaí under the accelerated recruitment programme came on stream in March and a further 275 newly attested gardaí will come on stream every 90 days from here on in.

In financial terms, the Garda Síochána has never been as well resourced, with the 2006 budget at an historic high of €1.275 billion. In particular, the 2006 overtime allocation has risen to €83.5 million, which represents a major increase of 36.6% over the allocation of €61.1 million for 2005 and will allow the Garda Síochána to intensify further its crime detection and investigation capabilities. Furthermore, I have made available a further €10 million to the Garda Commissioner for special Garda operations tackling specific forms of crime including burglaries and other offences.