Scrapping the Garda PULSE computer system would be "folly" and "wholly irresponsible" the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said yesterday. The system could be modified and adapted to meet new demands, he said.
But to scrap it only a short number of years after it came into action "would be totally irresponsible. Simply to throw something which cost a great deal of money to develop and start again would be folly", said the Minister.
Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim O'Keeffe had called for the system to be replaced because it was unsatisfactory, out of date and "some gardaí must travel 10 or 15 miles to a Garda station to input their material into Pulse" which was a waste of time.
Mr O'Keeffe said the State got bad value because €60 million had been spent on the system and it only reached 25 per cent of Garda stations.
Mr McDowell said however that 75 per cent of all gardaí had direct access to a PULSE system in their stations.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/5cf4f137-e78e-4bdb-a43b-6311e855e51f.png)