Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I am immensely proud to represent the constituency of Tipperary South, a constituency blessed with extraordinary strengths, great history, strong employment, great outdoors, an outstanding tourism offering, wonderful retail and hospitality businesses, and above all extraordinary community spirit. Of course, like every constituency we have our challenges. We continue to tackle vacancy and dereliction. We continue to fight for investment particularly in our water and wastewater infrastructure.

However, today I want to raise what many constituents tell me is their greatest concern, the growing feeling that law and order is slipping away.

Across many of our key towns, including Clonmel, Tipperary, Carrick, Cahir, Fethard and Cashel, people are telling me they no longer feel safe. Businesses are witnessing open drug dealing in prime retail areas, families are increasingly concerned about antisocial behaviour and criminal gangs operate with increased confidence. At the same time, Garda visibility has reduced dramatically. Response times are far too long and in some instances people struggle to even make contact with their local Garda station. One constituent recently attempted to contact Clonmel Garda station more than 20 times during a serious incident without receiving an answer. Increasingly, people believe the only way of getting assistance is by dialling 999. I want to be absolutely clear: this is not a criticism of the men and women of An Garda Síochána serving on the ground in my constituency. Every interaction I have with them tells me they are working tirelessly, but under enormous pressure.

The problem is numbers. The programme for Government rightly speaks about balanced regional development, yet when it comes to Garda resources, there is nothing balanced about the current approach. This year, 356 recruits graduated from Templemore over two intakes, and just two came to the entire county of Tipperary. By comparison, 245, or more than 70%, went to the Dublin metropolitan region. When retirements and transfers are taken into account, Tipperary has effectively experienced a net loss. Since the division restructuring was introduced in 2020, Garda numbers across the Tipperary-Clare division have fallen from 725 to 660. Having the chief superintendent based in Ennis is simply not delivering for the communities I represent.

Will the Government commit to urgently reviewing Garda allocations for counties like Tipperary? Does the Minister support the review of the Clare-Tipperary divisional structure to ensure policing resources genuinely reflect the need of our communities?

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Murphy for his very important question, articulating the challenges to his constituency and standing up for his constituents.

The resource base the Government has allocated to An Garda Síochána in 2026, particularly through the justice budget, is €2.74 million, which is up 22% since 2020. There has been a significant increase in capital that we have deployed to ensure all corners of our country are supported in the context of justice and law and order, which is very close to all our hearts.

The increase in civilian staff within An Garda Síochána has freed up about 900 front-line gardaí. That should act as an accelerant to ensure front-line gardaí are freed up to work and be on the beat on the streets, while civilian staff can fill the gaps in other areas. If we keep going at this rate of recruits being attested through Templemore, we will be on target to surpass the all-time record number of gardaí, which will be very important. This is a strong demonstration of how that commitment needs to be held in communities right across our country.

The overall Garda workforce had increased from 15,980 in 2016 to 18,577 as of 31 May. Critically, the Government has made significant changes to recruitment, including the age limit, the training allowance, the shortening of recruitment timeframes, reform of the physical competency test and the introduction of an assessment of care approach to elements of the recruitment process. Two recruitment drives were launched in 2025. There were over 11,000 applications for the first round and in excess of 4,000 for the second. That shows we have a very strong pipeline to get recruits attested through Templemore, which is very important. Obviously, there was a significant lag to get the Government to build that up again and get going in shortening the process. However, getting Templemore operating at maximum capacity with a much shorter process will assist significantly with this.

As regards the Clare-Tipperary division, as the Deputy quite rightly pointed out, there has been a challenge. About 660 gardaí are assigned to that division and, obviously, for the record, it is the Commissioner who has operational responsibility for deciding where gardaí serve in particular districts. However, there are significant incentives for gardaí to move, which is facilitated through the new rules and should help people to return close to their areas. This should help rural communities like the Deputy's.

We will absolutely bring the Deputy's concerns to the attention of the Minister for justice and continue to work with the Deputy in fighting for his constituents and standing up for Tipperary.

Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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This is about fairness. Just two gardaí have been allocated to Tipperary this year, with 245 going to the Dublin metropolitan region. Criminal gangs are operating with increased confidence in my constituency. Our gardaí on the ground in south Tipperary deserve reinforcement. Our communities deserve reassurance and our businesses deserve to operate without open criminality undermining our town centres. The reputation of south Tipperary is only as strong as the people's sense of safety. Once that begins to disappear, everything else is put at risk.

Will the Minister commit to organising a meeting for all Oireachtas Members in south Tipperary - I note Deputy Healy is in the room, as well as Deputy McGrath - in order to review the allocation model, particularly as it applies to south Tipperary, and more importantly, to explore a review of the Clare-Tipperary divisional structure, which is not serving the people I represent?

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Murphy for being proactive and bringing forward a solution to try to operationalise a group of the Oireachtas and showing leadership to do that for Tipperary. I will absolutely bring that to the attention of the Minister for justice, particularly considering the cross-party aspect. This is very important and shows leadership. Essentially, the Deputy is trying to deliver for his community.

Retail crime has been a big challenge and is an area on which my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, has done a huge amount of work to support retailers, which has been very challenging over the last number of years. Critically, as the Deputy pointed out, the increase in the recruitment model is not enough for Tipperary. We will do everything we can as a Government to support and ensure rural communities are safe. One thing I am very clear on as a member of Government is that you cannot tell people they feel safe; they must feel it themselves. They must be very much aware of the resources being put in and see their gardaí as active. The Government is doing everything to increase that pipeline to ensure it is responding at a time when we have the resources to protect local communities like the Deputy's, so I will absolutely carry forward his request.