Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I met with the Garda Commissioner recently and, of the number of issues he outlined to me, one was that we have two economies in this country. We have an international economy whereby people are in very high paid positions in the various technological companies. Many of the gardaí being recruited have skills and we need those skills to deal with cybercrime and all these areas. They get trained in An Garda Síochána and then they go off to work for some of these multinational corporations at a higher salary. That is one of the problems that needs to be to be dealt with. I am not sure how it can be dealt with, but it is one of the real issues that needs to be looked at.

The Minister also mentioned the difficult work environment and the often aggressive attitude that many gardaí have to face and of course we recognise that. We also have a difficulty whereby many members of An Garda Síochána are stationed very far away from their home base and, when they look to return closer to home for family reasons, or to be nearer to family or to the places where they grew up, they find it difficult to do that. That is a harsh regime that is in place. I could probably count 50 gardaí who have contacted me in recent months who are stationed far away from where they live or from where their family come from and they want to get transferred back closer to there. That is a real issue that is having a detrimental effect and it means that they will decide to leave the force if they cannot get transfers.

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