Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Commissioner's acknowledgement of this issue. When I was Lord Mayor of Dublin, we commissioned the Ballymun - A Brighter Future report. It was drafted by former Lord Mayor Andrew Montague. The Commissioner was very good to make Chief Superintendent Mark Curran available in that regard. The Commissioner probably noted that in December the Cabinet appointed John Costello as the new chair of the implementation board for Ballymun to try to help operationalise and implement some of the recommendations in the report.

One of the key elements of the report is that the northern division has 2.3 gardaí per 1,000 people. We have to conclude that some of the comments in the report came from within the Garda, because they are there. If we take out the 48 gardaí assigned to Dublin Airport, the figure drops to 1.7 gardaí per 1,000 people. These are the 2021 figures. This region includes Darndale, Coolock and Ballymun, which are all significant areas. How is it that Sligo, Cavan and Westmeath have more gardaí per 1,000 people than an area which, according to the report, has the third-highest murder and serious crime rates? Does the Commissioner see this inconsistency? Perhaps he could say a little about the methodology of how gardaí are deployed throughout the country. As Deputy Catherine Murphy stated, the Minister tells us this is entirely a matter for the Commissioner. Will the Commissioner give us an insight as to how we distribute gardaí?