Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the good work the Garda is doing in exceptionally difficult and constrained times. I know the Minister is talking about the distribution of gardaí. There is still only a limited number of gardaí available for the country as a whole, and Wicklow has suffered by a reduction of 40 since 2011. More worryingly, Wicklow received ten new recruits, two of whom have resigned. Hopefully that is not a worrying trend.

Wicklow has a very large urbanised area to the north and has a very large rural area bordering Dublin, where criminals are organised and mobile and are using both the N11 and the N81 to access rural areas. The reduction in the number of gardaí in Wicklow has resulted in a corresponding increase in recorded crime, with an increase of more than 10% in the number of serious drugs offences and sexual offences and a massive 27% increase in weapons and explosives offences.

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