Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to return to the issue of Garda numbers, as I often do, in regard to County Meath. County Meath is the county with the lowest number of gardaí per head of population, something which has been the case for a long time. By way of comparison, in 2009 there were 315 gardaí in County Meath, with a population at that time of 172,000 people. At the end of 2024, there were 316 gardaí, one more garda for a population of 225,000 people. We can see that there was a massive population increase, in excess of 50,000, but only one extra garda. The Minister will be aware of that. It has a real implication in terms of the ability of gardaí to cover the area well.

I have repeatedly raised this matter. I have raised the issue of the Garda resource allocation model and the number of recruits that are coming out of Templemore. I have been told that the allocation model is based on PULSE data and historic strength. The issue of historic strength is almost like the HSE idea of a block grant being based on what was received last year. We need to be more sophisticated in that regard.

The Minister mentioned CCTV. In my experience, having dealt with Meath County Council and local communities, things are unnecessarily complicated. There are many communities that do not have CCTV. Some communities have signed petitions for CCTV for years. There are issues regarding GDPR and data protection which still need to be resolved and those services put in place.

I want to raise the issue of online community safety and ensuring that legal protections are in place for people in the area of, for example, catfishing. I ask that question on the back of an issue raised by a local constituent with the Minister's Department which stated there are protections in place. When the person took the parliamentary reply to the local Garda station, gardaí said they could not work with it. There is a need for improvement there.

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