Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Casey for his question. Notwithstanding the Garda Commissioner's responsibility for the distribution of Garda personnel, I am happy to provide a breakdown, in tabular form, of the detailed information requested by the Deputy for County Wicklow.

The Garda strength of the Wicklow division on 31 October 2017 was 301, of whom 13 are community gardaí. There are also 20 Garda reserves and 26 Garda civilian staff attached to the division. When appropriate, the work of local gardaí is supported by a number of Garda national units such as the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the armed support units, the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau and the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau.

The Government is committed to ensuring a strong and visible police presence throughout the country in order to maintain and strengthen community engagement, provide reassurance to citizens of County Wicklow and to deter crime in the Wicklow area.  To achieve this, the Government has put in place a plan for an overall Garda workforce of 21,000 personnel by 2021, which will comprise 15,000 Garda members, 2,000 Garda Reserve members, which will be a significant increase from those currently in the Garda Reserve, and 4,000 civilians which will allow for the freeing up of sworn gardaí to do duties on the street on patrol, which is the primary function of An Garda Síochána.

I am informed by the Commissioner that since the reopening of the Garda College in September 2014, almost 1,400 recruits have attested as fully-fledged members of An Garda Síochána and have been assigned to mainstream duties nationwide, 21 of whom have been assigned directly to Garda stations in the Wicklow area.  I look forward to attending the graduation of a further 200 trainee graduates on Friday this week, which will see Garda numbers, taking account of projected retirements, increase to around 13,500 by the end of this year, a net increase of 500 since this time last year.

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