Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Every year Deputy McEntee has been Minister, the number of gardaí has fallen. Garda morale has collapsed and Garda recruitment is on the floor. Every single day, a garda is violently attacked. Gardaí are getting rammed, bitten and assaulted and are having chemicals sprayed in their eyes. Garda retirements and resignations are on the increase. In October just past, for the first time, resignations exceeded retirements for the reason of exit from the force. Prisons are now so overcrowded that the Minister is letting criminals out on temporary release to make space for other criminals.

All of this has consequences. Crime and lawlessness are making no-go zones out of city centres and villages around the country. Murder is on the increase. Sexual assault has doubled in ten years. Rape has doubled in ten years. Domestic violence has tripled in the past ten years. Serious unprovoked attacks are now commonplace. There is also a direct correlation between the fall in the number of gardaí and the level of increase of fatalities on the roads in this country. We have the lowest number of gardaí policing the roads since 2009. Behaviour is changing on the roads, and that has led to the increase in fatalities in recent years.

All of this is before we get to the issue of the riots in our capital, the worst riots in generations. I spoke to gardaí on the day and they told me that many of them were mobilised not by Garda order but by fellow gardaí screaming on WhatsApp groups for help. They told me that they did not get mobilised until 6 o'clock and 7 o'clock, that they went to Santry, which was in pandemonium, that they did not have enough helmets, shields or body armour to deal with the situation and that, through traffic, it took at least one hour to get to the city centre. Garda lives were placed in danger on that day. We were lucky we did not lose the life of a garda in that situation. Images of our capital in flames were beamed across the world. The Minister lost control of our capital city. The Minister will win this no-confidence vote not on her record but because this Government is an accountability-free zone. If there is no accountability, there will be no change.

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