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

As the Deputy knows, the deployment of gardaí is a matter for the Garda Commissioner who obviously looks at the requirements in each individual county. Our county and County Kildare are comparable in that they both saw a massive increase in population in a very short space of time. That resulted in some of the figures we now see in terms of the number of gardaí per population. Over the number of years we have responded in increasing those numbers. As I said, we have seen an increase of 15% of Garda members since 2015. People might want to ignore that in the past three years the Garda College was closed. While it might be attributed to me or to this Government being in power, the Garda College was closed because it had to be, to make sure that we kept people safe. The Garda College is now open. Most importantly we now have a steady number of gardaí coming out. In fact, this week, I will be in Templemore again where we have a steady number of gardaí who will be going throughout the country. I have no doubt there will be members going to County Meath. In the last round we received five members. While that might not seem a huge number, it was five out of a total of 89. Obviously County Meath received its fair share in acknowledgement of the fact that our numbers are low. However, it is historic. The population has increased over time. The Garda College was closed in between those dates but real progress is being made. As Minister I want to see numbers increase everywhere. As a local TD I want to make sure that we have our fair share, as well as everybody else.

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