Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for the update. I will circle back to the matter of Garda numbers because community safety also depends on that. There should not be inconsistency across the districts in the Dublin metropolitan region. The K district might be losing out to the city centre at the moment but, historically, there have been inconsistencies with other Dublin districts as well. There is potentially one Garda for every 531 people in the K versus one Garda for every 397 people in a neighbouring district that has significantly lower crime statistics. Gardaí in the K are hungry, driven and dedicated, which is very evident when one works with them. The leadership is rolling out very positive and proactive initiatives. It has a very high proportion of gardaí who are still within their probation period. That is how new the force is in the district. Will the Minister examine the inconsistency and encourage evidence-based policy across population, crime statistics and geography? We need to receive the same attention as the city centre.

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