Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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18. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of Community Gardaí in County Roscommon and County Galway; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37482/24]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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At the outset I would like to assure the Deputy that my colleague Minister McEntee and the whole of Government are absolutely committed to providing An Garda Síochána with the resources necessary to make sure communities around Ireland are safe and feel safe.

As of the end of June, the latest date for which figures are available, there are currently over 14,000 Garda members assigned across the country. This represents an 10% increase on 2015 when there were 12,816 Gardaí throughout the country.

I can assure the Deputy that community policing is at the heart of An Garda Síochána, and I very much support the concept that every Garda has a role to play in community policing.

It is fundamental to the new Garda Operating Model which is currently being rolled out across the country and which is now fully commenced in 16 of the 21 Garda Divisions.

The new model provides more front-line Gardaí, increased Garda visibility, and a wider range of policing services for people in their local area by separating service delivery within divisions into four functional areas, one of the most important areas being community engagement. This facilitates a greater, more consistent, focus on community policing in all Garda divisions.

As the Deputy may be aware, a member of An Garda Síochána is deemed to be a ‘Community Garda’ where that person is allocated to a Community Policing Team (CPT), and is responsible and accountable for applying a problem–solving approach to appropriate crime and policing quality-of-life issues in a specified geographic area through community partnership and engagement. Examples of this engagement are working with Neighbourhood Watch, Community Alert, or local business fora.

Like most Garda members, those assigned to CPTs have dual functions. In addition to their strategic roles in these teams, part of which requires them to regularly update their Community Engagement Superintendent on the policing needs of their community, they are also frontline members. It is also important to note that CPTs draw on all frontline Gardaí to carry out community policing.

Of course, Gardaí are not solely responsible for safety in our communities and this is what the new whole-of-Government Community Safety structure aims to address by bringing the relevant service providers and the Gardaí together to work with each community in a collaborative manner to focus on tackling the concerns identified and prioritised by the local community itself. The roll-out of Local Community Safety Partnerships across the country will be a core part of that.

I have been informed by the Garda authorities that as of 30 June 2024, there were 19 Community Gardaí allocated to Mayo / Roscommon / Longford and 21 Community Gardaí allocated to Galway.

I can assure the Deputy that Garda management keeps the distribution of Garda resources under continual review, in the context of crime trends and policing priorities.