Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 59: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason the creation of 900 civilian posts within the Garda has resulted in the release of only 144 Garda personnel for front line policing duties as highlighted in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46188/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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An effective police civilianisation programme should never be confined to pure "one for one" replacement of individual Gardaí with civilians - it must necessarily take a number of forms. Firstly, there is the replacement of sworn members, who are engaged in exclusively clerical, administrative or technical duties, with civilian staff. Secondly, and very importantly, there is the use of civilian support which allows sworn members who would otherwise have to devote a huge part of their working day to performing administrative duties to focus exclusively on front-line policing duties. Thirdly, there is the recruitment of civilians to perform completely new or expanded administrative, managerial and professional support roles in An Garda Síochána, for example as crime analysts or IT specialists.

On this account, and because of the significant restructuring of roles, functions and business areas that has taken place at all levels of An Garda Síochána in recent years, it is very difficult to quantify the exact number of posts which were occupied by sworn members but which today are held by civilians. I can however confirm that since 2003 the number of civilians in An Garda Síochána has risen to approximately 2,115 whole time equivalents. This is still a low number compared to similar police services in other jurisdictions. Civilian staff are now involved in the provision of vital support services in a wide range of administrative, professional, technical and industrial areas, including Human Resources, Training & Development, IT and Telecommunications, Finance and Procurement, Internal Audit, Communications, research and analysis, accommodation and fleet management, scene-of-crime support and medical services. In addition, a number of essential operational support areas are now wholly or largely staffed by civilian staff, such as the Central Vetting Unit and the Fixed Charge Processing Office in Thurles and the Garda Information Services Centre which is based in Castlebar. The Garda Síochána Analysis Service, to which I referred earlier, is staffed by qualified and highly trained civilian analysts. Civilian Telecommunications Technicians provide front-line support to the whole of the Garda organisation across a range of technologies and services.