John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 434: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform further to the Government's promise to increase Garda manpower levels from 12,000 to 14,000 fully trained Gardaí within five years, the way in which he plans to redress same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24350/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Agreed Programme for Government between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats states "we will complete the current expansion of the Garda Síochána and increase recruitment so that the numbers will increase by a further 2,000."

I have been informed by the Garda authorities that the personnel strength of An Garda Síochána increased to a record 12,641 (all ranks) on Thursday 8 June with the attestation of 273 new members. This compares with a total strength of 10,702 (all ranks) as at 30 June 1997 and represents an increase of 1,939 (or 18.1%) in the personnel strength of the Force during that period.

The current recruitment drive to increase the strength of the Garda Síochána to 14,000 members, in line with the commitment in the 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, with a fully attested strength of 14,000 by 2008. The first group of newly attested Gardaí under this accelerated recruitment programme came on stream in March and the second such group did so on 8 June. Further tranches of approximately 275 newly attested Gardaí will follow every 90 days thereafter until the programme is complete.

The Garda Commissioner will now be drawing up plans on how best to distribute and manage these additional resources that are coming on stream. Clearly, of course, the additional resources 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 a large number of public order offences, but it will be possible to address other priorities as well, such as the need to very significantly increase the number of Gardaí allocated to traffic duties as part of the Garda Traffic Corps. One thing I have already promised is that the additional Gardaí will not be put on administrative duties. They will be put directly into frontline, operational, high-visibility policing. They will have a real impact.