Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)

It will be a very positive day in Templemore tomorrow when 194 new recruits will be passing out. Unfortunately, many of these new recruits will be allocated to the metropolitan cities while in my constituency the key towns of Tipperary, Cashel, Cahir, Fethard, Carrick-on-Suir and my hometown of Clonmel will be left behind. I am sure the Tánaiste will agree that maintaining law and order is not just a challenge for our cities. It is a challenge for every town, village and community across Ireland. I am very proud of Clonmel but maintaining law and order is an enormous challenge. Of the four allocations this year, we received four additional gardaí but many more have transferred out. At the end of this year, Clonmel will have fewer gardaí than we did at the beginning of it. I appeal to the Tánaiste to intervene.

See this speech in context