Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is quite reassuring. Members of the House are anxious that the areas we represent will receive their proportionate share of any new recruits in order to improve the visibility of gardaí on the ground.

I wish to trespass into the area of Garda management, because I know the Minister regularly engages with the Garda Commissioner and senior management. One of the issues about which most of us as public representatives receive representation from individual gardaí is transfers. There are gardaí from west Cork or west Kerry who are positioned in Dublin and want to get back to their county. This may be due to family reasons, circumstances changing, elderly parents, gardaí getting married or a spouse working in the country while a garda is working in Dublin. There is greater scope for more efficient manpower management within An Garda Síochána and I would like Garda management to be aware of that. There needs to be greater flexibility.

They have fewer ties but as they advance in years, marry and settle down, there are more ties to home. I appreciate that members of the Garda cannot be appointed in their home patch but perhaps they could be deployed somewhere proximate to where their families are or where their spouse might be working. They are all issues that should be taken on board.

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