Ahern under fire over McDowell's pledge on 2,000 extra gardaí

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday refused to say if the Cabinet will back Justice Minister Michael McDowell's proposals to recruit an extra 2,000 gardaí.

Mr Ahern faced a barrage of criticism from Enda Kenny of Fine Gael and Pat Rabbitte of Labour during leaders' questions in the Dáil over the minister's announcement at the weekend that gave the impression that the gardaí, promised in the Programme for Government, would be recruited.

Mr Ahern defended his government's record on crime, saying it had increased resources to e1 billion this year to fight crime.

However, he did not the questioning of the two party leaders on whether his government had approved Mr McDowell's drive to achieve the target of 2,000 extra gardaí by 2007.

Mr Kenny said the credibility of the Government was in shreds on the crime issue.

"The announcements made by the Minister for Justice has no basis in terms of a Government decision.

"Is it not a fact that the streets of this country are more like the streets of Dodge City in the 1880s than they are to the Ireland of 2004," he said

Mr Rabbitte said Mr McDowell had made a habit of making "announcements of everything under the sun".

A spokesman for Mr McDowell said last night that the opposition leaders had misrepresented the minister's remarks. He said the minister had said it was his intention to bring proposals to the Government over the next few months, to fulfil the recruitment commitments by 2007. There was no inference that the Cabinet had already approved it, he said.

Only 400 of the 2,000 gardaí promised will be in place by the end of the year. But the minister wants the Cabinet to prioritise recruitment given the healthier state of public finances.

However, yesterday Mr Ahern would go no further than saying: "The minister has indicated he will bring forward his proposals to try and continue the commitment to increase the numbers of gardaí."