Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government’s policy is to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Part of being tough on crime is providing more resources for gardaí as well as ensuring the Garda Síochána is reformed in order that those resources turn into actual gardaí on the street and on the ground for people to see them. This is what all the reforms are about. It is about having fewer chiefs but more gardaí - more policemen and policewomen - on the streets. It is about fewer policemen in offices and more gardaí out and about where people expect to see them. The Government is 100% behind the Garda Commissioner in driving those reforms and providing him with the additional resources he needs to ensure this happens.

In the past three years, the number of gardaí in Tipperary has increased from 354 to 385 while the number of civilian staff has increased from 32 to 66. This will continue as resources allow. The total Garda force nationwide is 14,200, supported by 2,700 Garda civilian staff. This means that the force is at its highest ever level with its highest ever budget, €1.88 billion, next year. Since I became Taoiseach, 1,000 gardaí have been recruited and up to 700 more will be recruited next year.

A large part of the reform is civilianisation, ensuring work that can be done by civilians is done by them, allowing gardaí to be freed up for front-line policing duties, which is what we want them to do. There has been a redeployment of 500 experienced gardaí to front-line services, with 250 redeployed in 2018. This means that the process of civilianisation has already delivered 750 more gardaí. Those who were in offices and administrative roles are now back on the front line where we want to see them.

The location of Garda district headquarters is an operational matter for the Garda Commissioner to decide. When the Commissioner was appointed, we gave him the assurance that he would be properly resourced and that he would be given the freedom to reform the Garda as he saw fit. I am glad he is doing that. There are other examples of divisions where two counties have been put together. It works well. The location of the headquarters should not be a significant issue. It is different from an ambulance base or an emergency department. It is an administrative location and the Garda Commissioner decides where it makes sense to locate those.

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