Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State well in his role. We need gardaí in my area. We also need equipment for our gardaí. Searches and rescues happened during snow and storms. The Garda assisted in searches for missing persons and had to borrow equipment from another county.

I wish to put a question on the record and would like a written response from the Minister of State. There was an investigation of gardaí in Limerick in 2019. That investigation is still ongoing. If somebody was found guilty, they would have been brought to justice by now. This has been going on for six years. Those gardaí could be back on the beat if they were found to have done nothing wrong. Why is the investigation taking so long? It does not make sense. If the judicial system works, it should not take that long. I would like to know when those cases will come to a close. When will we get those gardaí back on the beat, if that is going to happen? I would like a deadline for that.

According to the statistics, per head of population Ireland is now one of the biggest users of cocaine in Europe. That is alarming. We see all the different laws that are coming in. We are tightening up on drink and drug laws. We now have the changing of speed limits. When you add them all together, we do not have a police force to police these laws. When are we going to get the police force to police these laws? When are we going to get the community gardaí who are vital? Gardaí are working hard at the moment. They recently brought out a tractor on a tractor run. The tractor was painted in the colours of An Garda Síochána. What did that do? It allowed the Garda to communicate with the younger generation and try to help them with health and safety. It opened communication between the Garda and younger people coming up. It was a way for the Garda to say it is okay for young people to approach gardaí and that is what we want to happen. We want young people to know they can approach and confide in gardaí. That is a good thing. It is thinking outside the box. However, it can only be done with investment from the Government. It must provide the facilities and equipment for the Garda to carry out more of that work. When that happens when people are young, it will work as they get older because the communication is there. They can work together as a community for the betterment of the whole area. That is key. We need investment in Garda services and equipment and more of what we are seeing from An Garda Síochána at the moment, in collaboration with younger people.

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