Dublin is clearly underpoliced. There are not enough gardaí in our capital city and I do not think anyone disputes that after last Thursday. However, it needs to be said that the rest of the State is also underpoliced. In County Monaghan, I regularly hear from people in each of our towns and villages who tell me they feel unsafe walking up their main street for the first time in their lives. After 12 years of Fine Gael governments, we have fewer gardaí and fewer Garda stations in our county than when it came to office. This year, of the 227 gardaí who came out of Templemore, 165 have been deployed to Dublin. If that continues, virtually every single area outside Dublin will have fewer gardaí next year than this year. Will the Taoiseach ensure that will not happen and that the necessary resources going to police Dublin are not at the expense of other counties?

It is important that all parts of the State and all counties are adequately policed. I agree on that. We are back up to about 14,000 Garda members at the moment. We expect 700 to 800 recruits through the Garda College this year, rising to 800 to 1,000 next year. That will allow total Garda numbers to increase to 14,500 by the end of next year. We are raising the minimum age at which you can join the Garda. We will also increase the retirement age to allow more experienced gardaí to stay on if they want to. We will make a formal decision on that in a matter of weeks. I have also asked the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to come up with any new proposals that we may be able to put in place quickly to increase numbers.