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

First, I commend the work of An Garda Síochána. I particularly wish to thank the work of community gardaí. They provide vital support within communities. We saw how important their work is throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in particular in visiting people and looking after those who are more vulnerable. I refer to the day-to-day work they do in supporting organisations, committees and in dealing with issues like antisocial behaviour. They are the people to whom you can pick up the phone to call if an issue arises. We all wish to see more community gardaí. The way to achieve that is through having more gardaí overall. That is one of my highest objectives in the Department. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of measures are being put in place to make sure we can recruit more gardaí, as well as retain the ones we have. The fact that 6,400 people applied last year alone, on top of the 5,000 people who applied in the previous year, shows it is a role which people want.

Part of the new operational model is in making sure we have community policing teams in all of the various operating areas. We need to populate them with additional gardaí. The overall objective is that every area will have a specific garda who people know and to whom people can pick up the phone to ring on any community-based issue. That is the overall objective but it will take time to get to that point.

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