Madam, - The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has pledged to introduce international best practice into policing in Ireland. Perhaps he should look at New Zealand as a role model.
New Zealand has a population comparable to Ireland's - just short of four million - and a road system of almost exactly the same extent - 92,000 kilometres. But it has an area almost four times the size of Ireland.
I have recently returned from a 10-week visit to that country during which time I drove about 8,000 kilometres in both the North and South Islands. I was amazed at the extremely high visibility of the New Zealand police force and I am not exaggerating when I say one would see a squad car every 20 to 30 kilometres. Virtually no one breaks the speed limits (100 k.p.h. or less) because there is a very high possibility of earning penalty points and losing your driving licence.
Random breath testing is frequent - I was tested twice, both times during the day - and significant progress has been made in reducing road deaths from 514 in 1996 to 404 in 2002. It should be noted that New Zealand does not have a dedicated road traffic corps.
Despite all this, New Zealand has a police force numbering just 7,000 compared with our force of almost 12,000.
Mr McDowell should ask himself: "Have we 5,000 too many police in Ireland?" - Yours, etc.,
RICHARD MANSFIELD, Green Hill, Fermoy, Co Cork.