Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has promised new powers of investigation for the gardaí, including a European DNA database and new measures to tackle white collar crime.
However, Mr Shatter failed to accede to demands for increased Garda numbers and said Government targets to reduce numbers to 13,000 would still provide for the same number of gardaí that were in the force in 2006.
Speaking at the Garda Representative Association annual conference in Westport this afternoon, Mr Shatter said the Government had not made a final decision on how many gardaí should be in the force. But he said what has a profound impact on public safety was "not a matter of numbers". Rather, he said it was a matter of investigative skill, reliable intelligence technical support and "smart policing".
He told the conference he would shortly publish new legislation on white collar crime. In the meantime he said he had asked Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan to ensure the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation had all the resources it needed, particularly for its investigations into banking matters. "Work undertaken by the bureau in this area is of vital public importance," he said.
The Minister said he was disappointed by the conference call for the abolition of the Garda reserve. He said he would have hoped that voluntary, communal and committed support for the gardaí would have been welcomed by members of the force.
On the subject of a DNA database he said for more than a decade governments had promised such a database to assist gardaí in investigating crimes. While the last government had published legislation on the issue, he said "substantial amendments" now needed to be made. A new Bill should be ready by the end of the year, Mr Shatter added.
"Arrangements are also presently being made at European level for European police forces to have full access to information held in DNA databases held within the EU," he said.