Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Garda numbers are continuing to decline. They have declined every month for the past 12 months. As she set out, the Minister's plan to deal with this decline was to recruit five different intake classes of 200. That has been a failure. The February intake was 135. The May intake was 154. Many of those being offered places at the Garda College are not taking them up. This is a serious crisis, one that will not be resolved by the measures the Minister has outlined.

I understand, and the Minister has told us, that the Garda Commissioner has given assurances that the best he can hope for is that there will not be a net loss of gardaí this year. We need to start building numbers. Will the Minister set out for the House how she will deal with the numbers declining month on month? Peak Garda numbers occurred in March 2020 when they totalled 14,720. Last month, there were 13,927. That was almost 850 fewer. What is the Minister’s strategy to deal with his situation?

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