Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for his patience. I thank all of the gardaí and staff who are present.

When I was in my office, I was listening to Assistant Commissioner Finn alluding to the proposed community garda complement of four in 40 in Cork. I understand the current complement is three in 25.

I have raised this issue twice before with the Commissioner. I wrote to him and, in fairness, received a response. As I previously put on the record, my view is that Cork has not got a fair shake. Since 2014, 2,800 gardaí have graduated from Templemore, of whom 69, or 2.4%, have been assigned to Cork which accounts for almost 10% of the national population. That is not good enough. I acknowledge that it was intended for gardaí from the most recent complement of graduates to be assigned to Cork, but the Commissioner decided to redirect them to Dublin and Drogheda for reasons that I understand.

I am conscious that there are significant challenges in Cork. There was a big public meeting last night at which significant anger was expressed about a rise in crimes, including assaults. There were two very serious assaults last weekend in Cork city. It is high time for Cork to be afforded an adequate complement of gardaí. I ask the Commissioner to prioritise Cork in the allocation of gardaí in November. I know that four in 40 is the plan, but what is important is that many of them will be promoted from the ranks of ordinary gardaí and those positions need to be backfilled. I ask the Commissioner to take that on board for the November allocation.