Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In order to get extra people on the ground, we need to tackle the issue where, if a garda is on a shift and if there is an arrest, for example, for antisocial behaviour, a car accident or whatever it is he or she has to do, approximately three hours of that garda's day then turns into paperwork. Those three hours are spent behind doors where he or she is not visible. To counteract that we need more gardaí on the ground. I understand that more people are being trained up and deployed but we need to ensure that they are covered in the towns, villages and rural areas around the county and not per head of population, as within the larger cities. This is because when gardaí are in a local area in a county, they have to travel up to 40 square miles to cover areas themselves and there may be only four or five gardaí on duty, if one is sick or engaged in paperwork.

We need extra gardaí and to double their number in our stations around County Limerick to ensure that we have a police presence at all times, where people are sick or are otherwise engaged with paperwork behind a desk, after having completed their investigations during the day.

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