Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There has been a number of engagements on this Bill. I will again mention the victims of the incident, including the parents, school community, bystanders, emergency services, council workers and gardaí, in particular the resting gardaí who came in at short notice.

We have been hearing for a long time that the main issue has been a lack of a Garda presence on the streets. That is not only true in Dublin city centre but also in many of the other cities across the country and in most large towns. We have heard a number of proposals from business groups, members of the public and senior gardaí. We hear from gardaí that Garda stations are at half capacity. Units are 50% the size they were before the Covid-19 pandemic. We hear that the retirement age should be increased to 62. We hear that a task force on retirement and recruitment should be established. We accept that in 2018, there were 77 resignations. There were 69 resignations in 2020 and there were 114 to the end of September this year. What is the position with those numbers? Overall numbers have dropped from 14,500 to less than 14,000.

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