Ms Tara McManus:

The Deputy hit the nail on the head regarding community policing. We have all talked about the OPM and how it is eroding the very nature of community policing. For years, we prided ourselves on the fact that we were one of the only police forces in the world that was unarmed and can do what we do in communities and interact with people without carrying firearms. We have always prided ourselves on being able to walk down any street and if someone is lucky enough to find a garda on a beat, he or she can speak to that garda. You see people taking pictures of gardaí with their hats, which would not be done in any European city because the police are armed and have a particular image people are not prepared to cross. We always pride ourselves on that.

There is a correlation in respect of assaults. In the past number of weeks, all our phones have hopped with the number of assaults on our gardaí. Three members in the past four weeks have had their legs broken through cars or scooters driving at them. There have been some very serious injuries, in particular, in the DMR west division, which were particularly violent and aggressive. That contact between the local community garda and the community is going and is almost gone. The Deputy talked about morale and how it is affecting people. It is significantly affecting people. We conducted research in late 2023, when we specifically asked about morale. I spoke to 40 people who had resigned. Every single one of them cited morale as an issue and a reason they left. Thirty-nine of the 40 cited mental health issues as another reason. That is another huge issue affecting our members.

We are currently rolling out a mental health first aid course in An Garda Síochána. We are bringing gardaí in and training them to deal with mental health emergencies in the community. The trainers on that course are finding the course participants are seriously suffering with mental health issues. There is a traffic light system where people are graded green, orange or red on their mental health. The trainers say that the majority of members attending courses are verging on yellow to red. The mental health of members of An Garda Síochána is seriously suffering. They are experiencing burnout, stress and exhaustion. They are overworked. There are not enough gardaí to do the work and there is too much work for the gardaí to do. Overtime is fantastic and great, but it comes at a huge price. It has a high personal cost. Family and personal time are lost and, as my colleagues in the AGSI alluded to, commuting is a major issue for our members. They cannot afford to live in the areas they are stationed in, so they are commuting large distances. That is another erosion of the community police because a community garda is no longer living in the district he or she polices, which traditionally they always did.

This is all eroding the idea of community policing. It is making our police service very impersonal. Gardaí are not really interested in finding out about local people. They want to come in, do their 12 hours and leave. That connection with the local community is being lost as a direct result of the lack of resources and the implementation of the OPM.