The proposed one, no. I don't think it's been thought through, would question the amount of training etc and I feel it's a political stunt by a Minister on the rack over crime figures and the number of new cops this Government promised.
In general, not sure. Never really noticed them one way or the other when I lived in the Britain. I'd have doubts about the type of people that would apply to join them, and Ireland is a very different environment compared to Britain in terms of social connections throughout the population.
Alot of the problems of guards doing paperwork is brought about by the Government restrictions on Civil Service recruitment imo. As with decentralisation, another McCreevy masterstroke that didn't take into account the needs of the country. Increased population means you need at least the same number of civil servants not less. Hence we have nurses, guards etc etc pulled off the frontline to do clerical tasks.
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