Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I note media reports yesterday that stated two thirds of the most recent recruit class from Templemore will be deployed to the streets of Dublin city. Like all Members of the House, I warmly welcome the deployment of additional gardaí to our capital's streets and communities. I sincerely thank those recruits for signing up, but if it is true that 98 out of 150 new Garda recruits are heading en masse to the city centre, I must admit it adds to my concern and that of the people I represent that Dublin's suburbs are losing out to the city centre when it comes to Garda numbers. Suburban communities, such as those in Dublin West, also face challenges when it comes to law and order. We have ongoing incidents of serious gangland crime along with persistent lower levels of crime and antisocial behaviour that, very worryingly, are becoming normalised. This includes open drug dealing, theft from cars every night of the week in estates, and growing incidents involving knives. All of that coincides with less visibility of gardaí on our streets.

My concerns are amplified by the fact that there seems to be significant inconsistencies in the deployment of gardaí across districts in the Dublin metropolitan region outside the city centre. These figures are based on Garda numbers provided in replies to parliamentary question and CSO population figures. They are conservative. In the K district, there is one garda per 510 people. In the neighbouring district, it is one garda for every 418 people; that district has 40% lower crime statistics. There is no valid reason for some Dublin Garda districts to have substantially fewer gardaí per capita than other districts, especially if they have more crime. The answer is not to take away from the Dublin districts that have those resources; it is to allocate more gardaí into under-resourced districts.

We need more gardaí on the beat in the villages of Dublin West. We should not have to rely on one Garda station serving 120,000 people there. There has been a lack of evidence-based policymaking. Will the Minister of State invite the Garda Commissioner to provide a report on levels of allocation of gardaí to all Dublin metropolitan regions with reference to population and crime levels? I am sure that data will tell a story we are very familiar with in Dublin West.

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