James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Flaherty for raising the issue of the number of gardaí in County Longford. I am aware that policing and protecting rural communities in the county is a hugely important matter for the Deputy, who has raised this matter with me on numerous occasions. The deployment of gardaí is a matter for the Garda Commissioner but I have no doubt that he will deploy additional gardaí to those areas, as necessary.

As a member of the rural forum, I can inform the Deputy that we are working on a new rural crime strategy that we hope to announce next year. This will bring together the various policies for the prevention of rural crime. An Garda Síochána are there to empower the communities in preventing crime. As we have seen with the new community safety partnerships, we can bring together all of the different elements of our communities to ensure they are protected from those who seek to exploit our communities and commit criminal offences.

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