There was astonishment among serving and retired Garda members at the Taoiseach's comments on Garda vetting last week in response to a question I had asked. To put back on record what the Taoiseach said, he asked what vetting actually means and what it actually produces. He stated, "It is quite limited in what it actually does." I have been contacted by a number of serving Garda members who have been back in Templemore and are concerned about what is happening there. In light of the Taoiseach's comments last week, is this lack of full vetting of trainee gardaí going to continue? Is it now Government policy, across all Departments and State agencies, that there will be a laissez-faire approach to the full vetting of people before they gain employment in State agencies or Departments?

That is a misreading of my comments. Sometimes people get the impression that vetting is extremely comprehensive in terms of the background of a person. It is not as comprehensive as people might believe. The big cry in the House for quite a while now has been for more gardaí, getting more people into training and so on. I will ask the Minister for Justice to reply to the Deputy more comprehensively and specifically in respect of Templemore, but I think we need to reflect on things generally. That is the spirit of the rhetorical question I put back to the Deputy last week. I know people may say I am against this or that, but I am not. I am simply trying to have a reasonable discussion on issues of this kind. I remember during Covid when were screaming to get people to do things in a public health emergency, and people were saying we could not do that because the vetting would take three months. We did not have three months during Covid. I have no issue with vetting - none - but we need more gardaí and more training places. I will ask the Minister to talk to the Deputy in respect of the specific issue in Templemore and where we are going forward.