Barry Ward

Nobody's suggesting the Gardaí shouldn't pursue people.

And I will agree with with Rory insofar as, of course, we need to invest in Gardaí and more Gardaí.

And that's why that's happening.

That's why Gardaí recruitment is up.

That's why more Gardaí are being trained all the time.

That's why the government is invested in reorganising on Gardaí Síochánaí nationally as well in terms of the districts in the region so that they're more effective.

And I can give you a list of other measures that have been put in place to improve the efficiency of Gardaí in terms of a whole range of crimes.

And there are two things in that.

Firstly, the difficulty is that the reality is that Gardaí recruitment is not something that can be done overnight.

It's been stepped up successfully over the last number of years.

starting with Helen McEntee as Minister who achieved the investment to make sure that Temple Moor was churning out more people who could go and do that job.

But yes, you can point to specific areas where for the moment there is a decrease, but that will be remedied.

It'll be remedied because the government has invested in Garda recruitment.

But David, I think what's really important is if you look at, let's say, gun deaths, for example, there were 47 homicides in Ireland last year, 47 people who were killed in Ireland last year.

Not one of them was killed by a gun.

So gun deaths in Ireland are not substantial.

They're certainly, they pale in comparison to other Western world countries.

So it doesn't mean any of this is acceptable, but it also has to be seen in that context.

It isn't tolerated.

But clearly it is.