James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Connor for raising the very important matter of the number of gardaí in each district in the Cork East constituency. Everyone deserves to be safe and feel safe in their own communities, and of course having a visible Garda presence in the community is an important part of that. Everyone deserves to have that sense of safety.

The unprecedented allocation of over €2 billion for 2023 and €2.35 billion for 2024 to An Garda Síochána demonstrates the Government's commitment to ensuring An Garda Síochána has provision to recruit the personnel it needs to carry out its vital policing work. This funding allows for the continued recruitment of Garda members and staff. The Government is taking several steps to accelerate recruitment into An Garda Síochána, including almost doubling the garda training allowance, increasing the age of entry from 35 to 50, increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62 and launching a new Garda Reserve competition. There are currently over 14,000 Garda members across the country, compared with 12,816 in 2015. This is an increase of around 9%.

The introduction of a new Garda operating model, which has already been rolled out in Cork, will provide more front-line gardaí, increased Garda visibility and a wider range of policing services for people in their local areas. It will divide service delivery within the division into four functional areas, one of the most important areas being community engagement. This will allow for a greater and more consistent focus on community policing in all divisions.

While the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the deployment of Garda members throughout the State, I am assured that Garda management keeps the distribution of resources under continual review in the context of policing priorities and crime trends. I can inform the Deputy that as of the end of June 2024, there were 667 gardaí in Cork city, 322 in Cork north, and 280 in Cork west. The Deputy will also be interested to note that the 322 gardaí allocated to Cork north, which covers most of the Cork East constituency area, shows an increase of over 8% since 2015.

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