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

I have doubled the funding for the text alert scheme and I welcome the huge voluntary effort that is going into developing it. A figure of 14,000 should be arrived at in the lifetime of the next Government. Clearly, there is always a number of potential retirements in any given year but more people are being recruited than are retiring.

When one looks at crime trends and recorded crime figures from the CSO for quarter 2 of 2015, it is important to note that homicide offences are down by 35%; robbery, extortion and hijacking offences are down by 8%; and public order offences and other social code offences are down by 4%. I am glad to say that weapons and explosives offences are down by 3%. The decrease in controlled drug offences is not as great but it is a decrease of 1%.

We need to look at the successes of An Garda Síochána as well as the areas that are challenging. It is very important that we pay tribute to the work we hear about on a daily basis and that we now see being undertaken through Operation Thor where very effective policing is being carried out in the country. Sometimes the amount of arrests made by An Garda Síochána and the huge successes it is having in respect of some very serious crimes can be underestimated.

See this speech in context