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

The years during which Templemore was closed as a result of the economic situation had a very serious impact right around the country. The Deputy quoted the figures for her own area. Closing Templemore had a huge impact because recruitment was stopped. If recruitment is stopped, we do not have the people to station in areas like the Deputy's. We had to deal with that situation when we came into office in 2011. This Government has started to invest in An Garda Síochána as well. There are many challenges, as we saw this week. There are many areas in which work needs to be done. However, we need people to carry out the work. One cannot get people unless there is recruitment, obviously. People cannot be put in the Deputy's area without recruitment. I have no doubt that she is right and that the numbers fell by the figures that she quoted, but they fell because the country was in an economic recession and there was no investment in a huge number of front-line services as the money was not there. The good news is that the investment has started again, there is new recruitment right across the service and areas like the Deputy's will be among those to benefit as the recruits come out of Templemore and as those numbers are higher than the numbers retiring. We will then be in a position to ensure that a broad range of areas receive more gardaí. That is extremely important.

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