The Garda Commissioner last week announced a ban on Garda overtime causing concern among gardaí, the Garda Representative Association, GRA, and the public. That is with three months left in the year. Due to a lack of front-line gardaí, overtime has become a fact of life and an essential part of keeping a station and district functioning. Much of the recent success the gardaí have had in tackling the scourge of serious organised crime had to do with significant overtime. Will the Minister for Justice and Equality meet the GRA and the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, to allow them outline the significant impact this will have on front-line policing and to examine alternative sources of funding instead of tying the hands of the gardaí behind their backs with this blunt instrument?

I have been approached by Garda officials as well to say that Commissioner Harris has introduced a ban on overtime to the end of the year. The programme for Government contained targets for resources to be put into fighting crime. Whether it is dealing with the incidence of drug-related and serious crime in urban areas, or crime in rural areas where rural gangs have resurrected themselves, this ban will greatly reduce the effectiveness of An Garda Síochána in all these operations.

After some difficult years for An Garda Síochána, the public's confidence is beginning to return under the new Commissioner, Drew Harris, and morale is beginning to lift in the force itself. Numbers are still not at the desired level and in their absence the facility of overtime is needed. Introducing a blanket ban for the remaining months of 2018 is a blunt instrument that could have devastating effects. I ask all parties concerned, the Minister for Justice and Equality, the Government and the Garda Commissioner, to review and reverse this decision and to allow the confidence growing in the force to continue.

The Garda budget is of the order of €1.6 billion. Out of that, less than €100 million is the bill for the overtime budget. The Garda Commissioner said in his initial public comment three weeks ago that he was going to look at the Garda budget. That is what he is doing. I keep in regular contact with him and with the Garda representative associations. I look forward to completing the ongoing ambitious programme for recruitment in An Garda Síochána. With the reopening of the Garda training college in Templemore, which was closed when Fianna Fáil was in office, I expect that by the end of this year we will have 500 new, ambitious, energetic and fully trained gardaí on our streets. The Garda budget is a matter primarily for the Garda Commissioner himself.