Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Aontú found out that 400 gardaí have resigned in recent years, and the number of gardaí resigning from the Garda force is increasing year on year. There was meant to be an intake of 200 recruits into Templemore this month but not even 50 applications were received, and the class was scrapped. Ireland has one of the lowest numbers of police per capita in the European Union and the situation has not improved at all since the austerity cuts ten years ago. The lowest number of gardaí is in the Minister for Justice's county. For some crimes, detection rates are as low as zero. That means for a crime such as burglary, crime does pay for everybody who is involved in it in her constituency. Many in the political class live in safe, leafy suburbs and tend not to prioritise this issue because crime and antisocial behaviour are not a day-to-day experience for them. Will the Minister make sure that the Government invests properly in the Garda force so we have the numbers to fight the scourge of crime?

See this speech in context