McDowell insists number of Gardaí will increase to 14,000

The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell today insisted that the numbers of Gardaí on the streets would reach 14,000 by December of next year.

He was reacting to questions in the Dáil by Fine Gael's Jim O'Keeffe, who said the Government was contradicting itself after Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said last week that figure would not be reached until 2008.

Minister McDowell said the main opposition party had read the figures wrong.

“The numbers of an Garda Siochana are increasing and will reach 14,000 by December of 2006”, he said.

“There's been a good deal of scepticism about this - numbers are increasing and Minister Cowen referred to the number of people who would have finished their two year training course as being reached in 2008.”