I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I start by commending the Minister, who has really grasped the nettle here with the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration. We are down to core policing issues because that is what really matters to people. People do not want fluff; they want to know that there will be gardaí on the street, that people feel safer and that there is high visibility so all of that is important. I really welcome the fact that in the past year, 794 new recruits have gone through the gates of Templemore with many of them already attesting and joining the ranks. I also welcome more visible patrols, which I have seen in my county. One sees gardaí on the street. That is where people really want them. We do not want them behind desks doing administrative work. We want them out there doing core policing duties. A lot of good stuff is happening. I would love the Minister of State to outline a proposal in the programme for Government - one I would have submitted at the time negotiations were under way to form a Government - to reintroduce the electronic tagging of prisoners. It was there in the past and the legislative basis for it is there. It flopped. It was costly, was not used properly and was not used effectively in the past but I think it can have a real place now because it is devastating for victims of crime to see people walk out of the court system or worse again go into prison for a few hours only to be sent out the back door and home in a taxi. That is not good enough. Other jurisdictions use electronic tagging of prisoners very effectively and we should be doing it too. I would love to hear from the Minister of State when he makes his concluding remarks what kind of timelines we can expect in that regard. I also want to speak about some geographical imbalances. A few years ago, Garda divisions were realigned. The Garda division that covers my county also covers County Tipperary and six of the superintendent positions are based in Tipperary with just one in County Clare. Similar imbalances can be seen across the country. We need to be cognisant of that going forward. I have often risen to my feet in this Chamber to speak about the 108 gardaí who were at one point suspended. That figure has dropped a little bit now. We need to know at all times that this Government and this country has their back. The processes are under way but I think an inquiry is required to look into how it was that gardaí, particularly in the Limerick division, which covers part of Clare, were suspended. They have all been acquitted. It has been costly to the State but there needs to be a deeper drilling down into that issue to understand how we got to that point. That should have been an internal disciplinary matter. It should not have blown up in the courts.

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