Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Deputy that this is an issue we are prioritising. We had a budget of €2 billion for An Garda Síochána last year. A significant amount of that went to increase Garda numbers. Templemore college has reopened. We have had three attestations this year already and from September and October we will have 200 gardaí coming out of Templemore every 12 weeks. This will significantly increase our numbers. We had a competition that yielded 11,000 applicants interested in joining An Garda Síochána.

Separately, the new operating model will mean, where we have a consolidation of various different types of work within An Garda Síochána such as human resources or finance, more gardaí who are in the system to go out on the beat on the front line. That will make a huge difference and will impact communities throughout the country as well as the significant increase in numbers.

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