Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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301. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí who have retired in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019. [23231/19]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will appreciate, it is the Garda Commissioner who has responsibility to manage and control generally the administration and business of An Garda Síochána, including by arranging for the recruitment, training and appointment of its members and workforce planning for the organisation.

The following table sets out the number of retirements from An Garda Síochána in the years 2016 to 2019, correct as of 6 June 2019, as provided by An Garda Síochána.

Retirements in An Garda Síochána, 2016-2019

The Government has increased the budget for An Garda Síochána to €1.76 billion for 2019, which includes provision for sustained recruitment to An Garda Síochána this year. The Garda Commissioner has informed me that he intends to recruit 600 trainee Gardaí in 2019, and a net of 600 Garda Staff which will allow the Commissioner to redeploy a further 500 Gardaí from administrative duties to the frontline policing duties for which they were trained in 2019.

I have been assured by the Garda Commissioner that the recruitment of Garda members planned for 2019 will ensure that, taking account of projected departures, the Government’s commitment to increasing the strength of An Garda Síochána to 15,000 Garda members by 2021 remains on track. The number of Garda members in An Garda Síochána now stands at just over 14,000 , a net increase of over 1,000 since the end of 2016.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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302. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí per head of population by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23232/19]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will appreciate, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the distribution of personnel and I, as Minister, have no direct role in the matter.

I can assure the Deputy that this Government is committed to ensuring a strong and visible police presence throughout the country in order to maintain and strengthen community engagement, provide reassurance to citizens and to deter crime.

I am informed by the Commissioner that as of the 30 April 2019, the latest date for which data is available, the overall strength of An Garda Síochána was 14,126 with 508 Reserves and 2,659 Civilians.

Garda management keeps the distribution of Gardaí under review in the context of crime trends and policing priorities to ensure optimum use is made of resources. I am advised by the Commissioner that recent census data is incorporated into the personnel allocation model. I understand that Census information received on a specific county format is amended by the Garda Síochána Analysis Service to reflect Garda Divisional boundaries.

However, it is important to note that ratios such as the number of Gardaí per head of population are not an appropriate tool to use when considering the allocation of Garda resources as they fail to take account of the fact that crime levels and types can vary significantly among communities of similar population size. The information requested by the Deputy in relation to the number of Gardaí per head of population is therefore not collated.

I have been assured by the Garda Commissioner that Garda recruitment planned for 2019 will ensure that the Government's commitment to increasing the strength of An Garda Síochána to 15,000 Garda members by 2021 will be achieved.

Garda strength for each Division by station and rank, from 2009 to 30 April 2019 is available on my Department’s website through the following link.

For more general information on Garda Facts and Figures please see the following link.