Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The new policing model is not working. One of the main aims of the model was to increase community policing. In fact, the opposite has happened. One of the main reasons for that is manpower. The regular units have been depleted. In many stations across Mayo, the regular units are half what they were a number of years ago. Internal competitions are pulling from regular units and, because there are no new recruits to An Garda Síochána in Mayo, for example, there is nobody to replace them. Mayo has received just one new recruit in the past three years. As a result of this, regular units are down to three, four or five members. There are major concerns in Castlebar station, where a unit is at risk of going down to three members as a result of an internal competition. This will cause major difficulties. Westport is already covering for Castlebar. Westport covers a region out to Achill Island. If a call happens in Balla or Castlebar and there is no squad car to attend, maybe because a guard is attending court, the Westport squad car will have to leave Achill and go to Balla. This is happening already. It is going to get worse.

The GRA will be discussing issues around morale, manpower and bureaucracy, but the Minister is not there. He is not there to attend for the second year in a row. This is unacceptable. What will the Taoiseach do to address rural policing, beef up regular units and ensure that we have specialist units?

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