Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has reiterated his plan to establish a Garda reserve despite continued criticism from the Opposition and Garda representative associations.
Insisting that the plan would go ahead as scheduled, the Minister continued his campaign to win hearts and minds, presenting the Chief Constable of Chesire Constabulary in Britain, Peter Fahy, to the press this afternoon.
Mr Fahy, the officer charged with formulating British policy on reservists, refused to be drawn on the objections of Garda representative associations, but said that his experiences with volunteer officers had been overwhelmingly positive. There has been a reserve force in Britain for over 175 years.
"I can understand that to start it afresh in today's society with all today's challenges around policing can seem daunting to some officers," he said.
"All I can say is that the system works extremely well in the UK and I think could work extremely well in Ireland."
Indirectly addressing some of the concerns raised by the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, Mr Fahy said that volunteers are subject to the same vetting procedures as regular officers and are trained to a very high standard.
He said that special constables in Britain receive between 100 and120 hours of classroom training before a period of learing in police stations. Irish proposals outline a training time of 120 hours.
He admitted that relations between regulars and reservists had been difficult for some time but said that this had not been the case for at least ten years.
"We've a very high standard of officer now in the Special Constabulary and that has really engendered a feeling of mutual respect between the regulars and the specials and I find now that most regulars actually want to see more Special Constables join the service," he said.
Mr McDowell is to meet the four Garda representative bodies again over the next two weeks.
Meanwhile, some 265 trainee Gardaí were sworn into the force this morning at a ceremony in Templemore, the largest ever class in the training college.
The gardaí inducted today will receive further training at stations across the country before, if successful, returning to Templemore for graduation in January of 2007.
The Programme for Government 2002 - 2007 pledges to "complete the current expansion of An Garda Síochána and increase recruitment so that the numbers will increase by a further 2000."
The swearing in of today's 265 trainees takes force numbers to 12,450. Garda strength stood at 11,895 when the coalition Government came to power.