Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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785. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of knife related injuries that were sustained by members of An Garda Síochána in each of the years 2015 to 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16407/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Minister of State Browne

As the Deputy will appreciate, the Commissioner is responsible under Section 26 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended) for the general management and administration of Garda business. This includes the absence management of Garda members and staff, regardless of the cause of such absence.

I have contacted the Garda authorities for the information requested and have been advised that there are currently no specific sub-categories on the Garda Sickness Absence Management System (SAMS) for the recording of absences due to knife related injuries. As a consequence, it is not possible to isolate specific incidences of absence due to knife related injuries sustained by Garda members from current absence records present on the SAMS.

It is also not possible to extract such information from PULSE, as this would require a manual trawl of incidents and a disproportionate expenditure of time and Garda resources. In addition, assaults on members may be recorded under a number of incident types.