Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, that €5.3 million is to be spent on 260 new Garda vehicles between now and the end of this year. These vehicles will be used to assist the Garda in pursuit of mobile gangs using high-powered vehicles. These 260 vehicles will be added to the 370 vehicles that have already come into operation so far this year. They will be used to tackle the scourge of highly mobile criminal gangs committing crimes throughout County Louth and across the country. The Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, has allocated €5.3 million to provide the Garda with additional high-powered vehicles, marked and unmarked patrol cars, cars for surveillance, motorcycles for high-visibility policing and vehicles for public-order policing.

This investment will support the Garda in carrying out more visible and responsive patrols on our motorways and in rural communities. The extra vehicles will give it the resources to increase surveillance of criminal gangs and to enhance night-time public-order policing. The Government will have invested more than €34 million in new Garda vehicles since 2012.