Sinn Féin TD for Meath West Johnny Guirke has said that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s failure to address policing numbers is leaving the people of Meath exposed and putting the community at risk. Commenting on figures presented in the Irish Independent today, Deputy Guirke said it was not good enough that stations to lose their serving garda include Ballivor and Summerhill. All at a time of increase crime in these areas.
He added that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s failure to address the problem of too few gardaí to meet the needs of an increased population was a dereliction of duty, that the Minister Jim O’Callaghan must now tackle this issue seriously as a matter of urgency, and that this would only be done by increasing the training capacity of An Garda Síochána. Teachta Guirke said:
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s failure to address policing numbers is leaving the people of Meath exposed and putting the community at risk.
“The lack of gardaí has very serious consequences for our community in terms of deterring crime, investigating crime and ensuring that people feel safe.
“Successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have failed to properly plan for and address this issue for more than a decade. This is a dereliction of duty, and communities right across the state are now paying the consequences.
“There is a serious problem in terms of garda visibility, particularly in terms of the lack of community gardaí. Until there is a significant increase in the training capacity of An Garda Síochána, this problem will not be fixed.
“From the figures presented today, we see that most of the stations that had a significant increase in number of gardaí were in the Dublin region, while those that lost gardaí were outside of Dublin. Our community cannot be allowed to suffer because of the particular challenges in Dublin.
“Sinn Féin has called for Garda numbers statewide to be increased to 16,000. Minister Jim O’Callaghan, as a matter of urgency, must put a plan in place to achieve this to ensure that every community has a sufficient amount of gardaí assigned to local stations such as ours in Meath.”
