Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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171. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí that have been redeployed in 2020 due to the hiring of civilian non-sworn staff. [13578/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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An Garda Síochána has been allocated an unprecedented budget of €1.952 billion for 2021. This level of funding is enabling sustained, ongoing recruitment of Garda members and staff. As a result, there are now approximately 14,500 Garda members and over 3,100 Garda staff nationwide.

The Deputy will be aware that the Garda Commissioner is, by law, responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána, including personnel matters and deployment of resources. The allocation of Garda resources is made in light of identified operational demand. This includes deployment of personnel among the various Garda Divisions. As Minister, I have no direct role in these decisions.

I am assured, however, that Garda management keeps this distribution of resources under continual review in the context of policing priorities and crime trends, to ensure their optimum use.

I am informed by the Garda authorities that the number of Garda members redeployed during 2020 was 144. The Deputy may wish to further note that the total number of Garda redeployments as at 31 December 2020 under the civilianisation programme is 746 .