Garda numbers to reach 14,000 target next year, says McDowell

Garda numbers will reach 14,000 by the end of next year, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell insisted.

He was replying to Fine Gael spokesman Jim O'Keeffe, who said that Minister for Finance Brian Cowen had said the 14,000 target would not be reached until 2008. "That will not solve the current problem in Firhouse, Clontarf and elsewhere," said Mr O'Keeffe.

Mr McDowell said that a good deal of scepticism had been expressed about the Government's commitment on Garda numbers.

"The numbers are increasing. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, referred to the fact that the number of people who completed their two-year training will be reached in 2008. The number of gardaí actually involved in the activities of the force and its organisational strength will reach 14,000 in December 2006."

The Minister said he also wanted to make clear to the Opposition deputies that the number of gardaí fell when their parties were last in office. "This point must be made constantly because some people are prepared to talk about what I am doing as if it is not enough."

Mr O'Keeffe responded: "Come on and get on with it. Deal with the problem."

Labour spokesman Joe Costello said Mr McDowell had invited the Opposition to consider his track record. "The 2,000 gardaí have not arrived and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, who holds the purse strings, stated that they will not arrive until 2008."

Mr McDowell said he would not take lectures from the parties which let down the Garda over the years on the proper execution of criminal matters.

Mr Costello said that on the question of telecommunications and secure communications for gardaí, they had been promised the digital Tetra system. But they still operated the analogue system.

"Proper surveillance could not be mounted without a secure system. The Garda Síochána does not have that. Many gardaí still use their own mobile phones. It is a scandal in this day and age that the Garda Síochána does not have the best in modern technology."

Mr McDowell said he was glad to tell the deputies that after many years of neglect the Garda was getting a digital radio system next year.

"In January 2006, the tenders will be out and the programme will be rolled out by mid-summer 2006." Asked by Mr O'Keeffe how long it would take to roll out, the Minister said he was telling him what was happening.

"All this was neglected for years and the 20-year-old sets we hear about survived two periods of the Labour Party in government, when nothing was done on the matter."

Mr O'Keeffe said: "By your fruits you will be known, not by your promises, headlines and media manipulation."

Meanwhile, Mr McDowell insisted that the planned prison at Thornton Hall in north Dublin would go ahead. He said that it would cost up to €300 million and would be completed in between two and six years. Attempts by the Labour Party to block the project by asking Fingal County Council to declare the area a conservation zone were "political play-acting", he said.

Mr McDowell said the State would recoup up to €100 million from the sale of Mountjoy Prison and a "colossal" further amount if the Central Mental Hospital site in Dundrum was disposed of.