John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In addition to road safety, the traffic corps has a significant role to play in crime prevention. We are all well aware of rural crime and so forth. The Minister said, quite specifically, that he does not allocate members of the Garda. However, I would like him to reflect on a comment he made in a written reply to me only in November, namely, "The Commissioner has committed in the Policing Plan for 2017 to increase incrementally the number of personnel dedicated to traffic duties by 10% to support better outcomes in relation to road traffic enforcement and crime prevention." Let us consider what happened. In January 2017, there were 669 officers. If the 10% increase, as indicated, had come incrementally, at the end of the year there would have been 735 gardaí assigned to the traffic corps. It continues to be my concern that instead of the 735 officers that the Minister indicated on the advice of the Commissioner, he is now saying we will have 627. I am concerned that the traffic corps continues to be decimated. While we have people being recruited and going through Templemore, the traffic corps is not seeing any of that reflected. Every time a figure is published, it is a decline in the numbers.

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