Peadar Tóibín
Question:1109. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice the number of gardaí who have been assaulted while on duty in each of the past five years, in tabular form. [1515/24]
View answerWednesday, 17 January 2024
Questions (1109)
Written answers
I have requested the information sought by the Deputy from the Garda authorities. Unfortunately, the information was not received in time. I will contact the Deputy directly once the information is to hand.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51
I refer to Parliamentary Question No. 1109 of 17 January 2023 where you sought: “To ask the Minister for Justice the number of Gardaí who have been assaulted while on duty in each of the past five years, in tabular form.”
As you will recall, I had sought the information you requested from the Garda authorities and undertook to contact you again once the information was to hand.
We are all immensely grateful to members of our police service for their outstanding dedication and commitment to serving the public and for the important role that they play in our society.
For the most part, the relationship between Gardaí and the public is one built on very significant trust. We only have to look to the fact that An Garda Síochána is a largely unarmed, and yet hugely effective, community policing service.
This Government has consistently sought to support the wellbeing of Garda members in recent years. In Budget 2024, the government provided €6m for Garda wellbeing initiatives, additional medical costs and over 2,500 units of body armour.
As you will be aware, an assault on a member of An Garda Síochána, a prison officer, a member of the fire brigade, ambulance personnel, or a member of the Defence Forces is already an offence under section 19 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994.
A person convicted of such an offence is currently liable to a fine, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years, or both. The latter penalty was increased from a maximum term of 5 years in 2006.
However, the Government is committed to taking further action to protect Gardaí and frontline workers as necessary. To this end I announced a range of tougher sentences for existing offences under the Criminal Justices (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023. This sees the maximum sentence for assaulting or threatening to assault a Garda or other on duty emergency workers increased from 7 to 12 years
These changes will send a very clear message that attacks on frontline workers will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with robustly.
The table below, furnished to me by the Garda authorities, outlines the number of Gardaí who have been assaulted while on active duty in the State from 2019 up to the end of December 2023. Please be advised that these figures are subject to change as some incidents are not always reported in the year the assault took place.
|
Year |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
Total |
|
Number |
266 |
223 |
266 |
314 |
431 |
1500 |
*Information taken from the Garda Employee Management System (GEMS)
I hope this information is of assistance.