Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
649. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí attached to the public order unit in the Donegal division in each of the years 2009 to 2017 and to date in 2018, by rank in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32615/18]
View answer688. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí attached to the public order unit in the Dublin metropolitan region south division in each of the years 2009 to 2017 and to date in 2018, by rank, in tabular form. [32764/18]
View answer719. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí attached to the public order unit by rank in the Louth division in each of the years 2009 to 2017 and to date in 2018, in tabular form. [32804/18]
View answer788. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí attached to the public order unit by rank in the Limerick city division in each of the years 2009 to 2017 and to date in 2018, in tabular form. [33059/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 649, 688, 719 and 788 together.
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. Garda management keeps this distribution under review in the context of crime trends and policing priorities to ensure optimum use is made of the resources.
I am informed by the Commissioner that there are Gardaí with specialist training in public order policing in each Division who are available to be called upon when required to police events with an increased risk of a public order incident occurring, such as, protests or large scale public events. The number of Gardaí called upon is dependent on the nature of the event. As such there are no Gardaí assigned to public order units on a full time basis.
