Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 October 2023
11. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Justice the total number of gardaí in Meath at present; the total number newly employed; and the total number who resigned in each of the years 2020 to 2022 and to date in 2023; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44011/23]
View answerI want to ask the Minister the total number of gardaí in County Meath at present, the total number newly recruited and the total number who resigned in each of the years 2020 to 2022 and to date in 2023. If possible will the Minister supply figures on retirement as well to give us a sense of turnover, and whether there are plans to increase recruitment? Will the Minister make a statement on the matter?
The unprecedented allocation of more than €2.3 billion to An Garda Síochána in this year's budget demonstrates a 23% increase since 2020. That demonstrates the Government's and my commitment to ensuring gardaí have the provision for the equipment, technology, facilities, fleet and above all, personnel that it needs to carry out its vital policing work. Since the reopening of the Garda College in 2014 a total of 143 new recruits have been assigned to the Meath division. This has contributed to the number of gardaí in the Meath division growing by almost 15% since 2015. A further Garda attestation will take place this Friday, with a further allocation of gardaí due then. At the end of August this year there were 318 Garda members assigned to the Meath division. This includes 259 gardaí, 44 sergeants and ten inspectors. In addition, 45 Garda staff were assigned to the Meath division which represents a very significant increase of 73% in the same period. I hope these numbers will continue to increase as we have allocated additional funding for civilian staff in this year's budget too.
I am advised that as less than ten gardaí have resigned in County Meath in each of the years referenced, it is not the practice to report in this kind of detail because it could allow for individuals to be identified. However, we have taken all three years collectively. Over the three years, 13 members of An Garda Síochána have resigned from the Meath division. I am grateful to all of those men and women who have given exceptional service to this community. It is 13 members more than I would like or that the Deputy would like to see leaving. What is important is that we understand why people have left, be it in the past year or the past three years. That is why An Garda Síochána is conducting exit interviews, to see what more we can do to respond to the reasons for leaving. Some will have left for their own personal reasons but others will have left because of challenges in the job because it is an extremely difficult and challenging job. My role is to make sure that I provide the resources and put the supports in place to support gardaí. It is also notable that many of the major crime categories in County Meath have fallen in the most recent crime statistics. Most notably burglary has fallen by 38%. Overall I am committed to providing a steady pipeline of Garda members for the whole country and that of course includes my own county and the Deputy's County Meath.
I thank the Minister. I am not looking for a particular advantage for County Meath. What I am looking for is fairness and equity. It has been confirmed again this morning that County Meath has the lowest number of gardaí per head of population. That is a longstanding issue. I will ask the Minister about the rationale as to how we ended up in that position. It is fair to say that the number of gardaí in County Meath, which is not unique in this regard, has decreased under the tenure of this Government. In 2020, when this Government came into office, there were 335 sworn gardaí in County Meath. There are now 318. That has a real impact. Notwithstanding the Minister’s point in regard to figures, there is decreased visibility of gardaí in communities. There is certainly a sense of an increase in antisocial behaviour. Has the Minister targets for County Meath and elsewhere? What is the target in regard to recruitment over the period ahead? When will we see these gardaí in County Meath?
As the Deputy knows, the deployment of gardaí is a matter for the Garda Commissioner who obviously looks at the requirements in each individual county. Our county and County Kildare are comparable in that they both saw a massive increase in population in a very short space of time. That resulted in some of the figures we now see in terms of the number of gardaí per population. Over the number of years we have responded in increasing those numbers. As I said, we have seen an increase of 15% of Garda members since 2015. People might want to ignore that in the past three years the Garda College was closed. While it might be attributed to me or to this Government being in power, the Garda College was closed because it had to be, to make sure that we kept people safe. The Garda College is now open. Most importantly we now have a steady number of gardaí coming out. In fact, this week, I will be in Templemore again where we have a steady number of gardaí who will be going throughout the country. I have no doubt there will be members going to County Meath. In the last round we received five members. While that might not seem a huge number, it was five out of a total of 89. Obviously County Meath received its fair share in acknowledgement of the fact that our numbers are low. However, it is historic. The population has increased over time. The Garda College was closed in between those dates but real progress is being made. As Minister I want to see numbers increase everywhere. As a local TD I want to make sure that we have our fair share, as well as everybody else.
It is a statement of fact that in 2018 we had 318 sworn gardaí in County Meath. Five years later we are back to that point. That is just a statement of fact. I welcome the additional funding in the budget. However, we know recruitment is significantly behind the targets. It was 800 for 2022 and 300 were recruited, 1,000 for this year. I heard the Minister on the radio this morning saying she would hope for 800. A question comes up repeatedly in regard to this. Are there objective criteria for resource allocation? I take the point on population growth. However, is there an issue of rurality, or the influence of Chief Superintendents and the business case that they can make, or is it an issue of crime statistics or of population? What is it that determines allocation? I appreciate it is a matter for the Garda Commissioner but has the Minister raised this with the Garda Commissioner? Are there objective criteria for resource allocation?
It is a statement of fact that the Garda College was closed. That has resulted in skewed figures not just in County Meath but all over the country. Last year I allocated enough money for 1,000 new recruits. With the intake this week and at the end of the year we will see it will be closer to 800 if not slightly above 800 in the college, in training, or gone through the college. It is not 1,000 but it is not too far off. In similar recruitment campaigns before Covid-19, about 5,000 applied in that last campaign. In the most recent campaign, 5,000 people applied as well. We are actually not that far off. I am trying to be as ambitious as possible acknowledging that Covid-19 put a dent in the really positive numbers that we saw coming through the college coupled with a particular period in time where we have retirements because of when people went into the college about 30 years ago. However, nothing is off the table when it comes to increasing our Garda numbers. Very shortly, I hope to have something from the Garda Commissioner around increasing the age at which people can join. I have been engaging with my colleague in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform around retirement age and how we can increase that and keep many of the gardaí we have. As was discussed with the Deputy’s colleague Deputy Daly earlier, it is about how can we make sure that the gardaí we have are taken off non-core duties which other civilian staff can do and how can we continue to invest in civilian staff and the Garda Reserve as well. When all of this comes together, and it is all coming together, we will see not just an increase in County Meath but an increase in Garda numbers and visibility across the country, which is what all of us want here.
