Madam, - Minister for Justice Michael McDowell keeps saying that gardaí will not have the support of the public if they oppose the proposed reserve force. Who is this public he keeps chattering on about?
Is it the same public to whom he promised 2,000 extra full-time, properly qualified gardaí? Is it the same public whose members escaped being shot on the M50 last week while the extra two full-time gardaí that have been appointed were busy elsewhere?
I don't want a reserve, untrained, unpaid, volunteer, scratch-an-ego police force and anyone I've asked doesn't want it either. What they do want is for Mr McDowell to put his money where his sizeable mouth is by providing the extra 2,000 full-time, fully trained gardaí they were promised.
It makes one wonder what's next? Reserve nurses, reserve hospital beds? - Yours, etc,
PETER LYDON, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.