Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Garda Commissioner for his presentation. I want to talk about the round figures. In 2009 there were 1,055 members in the roads policing unit and that figure now stands at 623. The population of Ireland has increased by more than 600,000 in that period. According to the RSA, there has been a 20% increase, year-on-year, in the number of drivers on the road and possibly the same increase in the number of vehicles on the road, although the data is not perfect in that regard. We also have had a 20% increase, year on year, in fatalities on the road and in terms of collisions, for every fatality there are approximately nine casualties. The Garda Commissioner mentioned that policing is in a different place and that we are operating a different model of policing.

The use of technology and how we can improve on that was referenced but, even in the example of the technology used on the go-slow day, it seems very clear that a garda on the road is far superior to any technological fix. We also hear that the single most important thing is the fear of getting caught. That fear is always greater if an individual garda is present. The numbers do not add up. It does not make sense to me how we can have such a relative decrease in the number of gardaí in the roads policing unit. I ask the witnesses to speak to that. My concern is that ten years down the road this pattern will continue and we will not have a fix for it. There seems to be a real problem with the visibility of gardaí on the roads. I am not sure what the representatives said addresses that.