Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of my priorities is to maintain and enhance the capacity of An Garda Síochána to protect the public, and in particular to prevent and detect crime. It is true that Garda strength has been affected by retirements and that is why I was pleased to be able to secure approval from this Government for the resumption of Garda recruitment. One hundred new recruits entered training at the Garda College in Templemore in September 2014, the first intake of Garda recruits since 2009. This is as a direct result of the improved economic situation which has allowed recruitment to take place. A further 100 new recruits entered in December and a further intake of 100 is due to enter training at the end of this month. This will bring to 300 the number of recruits in the Garda College since last September and is a measure of Fine Gael and Labour's commitment to An Garda Síochána. The first intake of recruits will attest as members of An Garda Síochána in May of this year and they will be assigned to Garda stations by the Garda Commissioner. In my reply to the previous question I spoke about the increased budgetary allocation for modern, fit-for-purpose vehicles which are of significant importance to the work of An Garda Síochána. We are also providing an additional €7 million for this purpose in 2014 and €3 million in 2015, to allow the procurement and fit-out of approximately 400 new Garda vehicles. These vehicles will come on stream in the coming weeks.

It is a key objective of the Garda Commissioner to allocate all of the resources at her disposal in a manner which maximises their impact on the protection of the public and on the prevention and detection of crime. In that context, Garda management keeps under continuing review developments in relation to security assessments, crime trends and policing priorities so as to ensure the best possible use of resources. This is an issue for the Garda Commissioner. The Garda Síochána Inspectorate report made the point that there needs to be more attention paid to the allocation of gardaí, depending on crime trends in a given area, on the changing population in an area and whether an area has changed from a rural to a more urbanised area. These considerations must inform where police are deployed during a particular period.

Based on concerns expressed by various Deputies, I have asked the Garda Commissioner to ensure the allocation of policing is subject to continuous review, because priorities change. I commend the Garda authorities on the implementation of Operation Fiacla, which began in 2012. It was a national operation to tackle mobile gangs who were moving around and committing crimes throughout the country. This led to 11,405 arrests, and 6,549 people have been charged as a result of this operation by An Garda Síochána. Perhaps we do not pay enough attention to this type of work and the outcome of these operations. This very specific operation had a good outcome.

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