2026-05-06

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I welcome the members of Rotary Club of Clonmel to the Gallery, along with Councillor Richie Molloy. Yesterday, along with Councillor Niall Dennehy and Councillor Máirín McGrath, I met the new superintendent in Clonmel, James Hallahan. There is a deep sense of frustration at the ongoing neglect of County Tipperary regarding Garda numbers and Garda presence. We discussed all of the concerns, and he was forthright and we spoke the truth. The numbers are scary. It is not possible to operate a safe policing presence with the numbers we have. This has been going on for a number of years. So far this year, Clonmel in the Tipperary-Clare division, which was a disastrous move, got only one new Garda recruit while at the same time we lost one of the recruits from last year who did not stay in the job, which is okay as people might want to leave. Our message was clear. We need a Garda presence, Garda visibility and a timely Garda response when people need it. No police force in the world can police without the support of the public, and we have that here. I always support An Garda Síochána. It is clear that we do not have the numbers to provide responses. Without additional gardaí, there cannot be a response. Gardaí in Cahir, Tipperary town, Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel and Clonmel do not have the numbers to send out a squad car. It is scary and it is not good enough. The public deserve and expect resources. On a dark night last November, a convoy of four vehicles came from a neighbouring county and proceeded to rob numerous houses and businesses. One businessman frightened them off and followed them. That was his mistake. He was on the road and was on to the Garda station for 45 minutes but received no assistance. He said he would drive to Cashel town Garda station and he was advised not to as there were no members there. He was then advised to drive to the Circle K for safety, light and visibility and where there are CCTV cameras. This is not good enough. What is the Taoiseach going to do to increase the numbers because they are not there? The gardaí are doing a good job and I salute them and support them but they need proper numbers. It is not safe for them. The last Garda Commissioner under this Government and previous governments really did a lot of damage to An Garda Síochána. I had great hopes for the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, but his behaviour during the peaceful protests recently - and the Taoiseach's own - in wanting to put the gardaí in a situation with the riot police and everything else against ordinary decent people, did not help the morale of the public and in supporting the Garda. They support the Garda always and want to, and these people will and do. The heavy-handed tactics reminded me of the heavy-handed tactics of Fine Gael back in 1973 to 1977. It was shocking the way they were treated. We need extra numbers in Tipperary and in Clonmel especially. The antisocial behaviour is out of hand there.

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and the Government are very strong in terms of increasing the number of gardaí. We have committed very substantial resources and we want to maintain those resources to continue to increase the number of gardaí going into Templemore for training. The cohorts of over 200 trainees are now entering Templemore regularly. In the first intake of this year, 215 recruits entered Templemore and 209 trainees entered the college on Monday, 4 May 2026. As of the end of March, there is a total of nearly 14,500 thousand gardaí across the State. That is up 13% since 2015. The numbers are coming in. I understand the Deputy's concern in terms of those numbers then translating into County Tipperary, and into Clonmel, but we will get around. Quite substantial numbers have gone into cities and they have made a big difference. It is the intention of the Commissioner to substantially increase the number of gardaí in given towns like Clonmel and elsewhere as the gardaí continue to come through. People were talking earlier about Government expenditure and so on. To keep this at a very high level, we need to maintain and ring-fence the expenditure for that. I think that is something everybody wants. Operation Thor, which is dealing with rural crime, has been operating since 2015, and I understand burglaries have come down 75% since 2016. An Garda Síochána is making a lot of progress and does enjoy the confidence of the public. I agree we need more numbers in Tipperary and we will allocate as soon as numbers come out of Templemore in line with the operational and strategic planning of the Garda Commissioner. We have also been working on freeing up gardaí. There has been a significant increase in Garda civilian staff, which has freed up about 900 gardaí for front-line duties as a result of that particular initiative. We will continue to work with communities, the chambers of commerce across the country and business groups with a view to supporting them in protecting their goods and their services from crime, and also in working collectively with communities on what is the best overall planning approach to reducing crime and protecting people.

When will the Government have a measurable number of gardaí to put into rural towns and counties - I am talking about Tipperary here - and will he commit today to a specific plan to restore Garda numbers to Tipperary? I am not sure about this calling 999. Every person now is being told, and I heard this in my meeting yesterday, to ring 999. There is no replacement for connectivity with the local Garda, the garda on the beat and community gardaí. I salute Garda Fiona Gleeson in Clonmel and her other three colleagues, and Sergeant O'Leary in the community policing section. That is badly needed. They do a great job but they do not have enough of them. They are pulled off the community unit every other time there is an issue and shortages. An amount of time is wasted in courts and on other situations that they should not be dealing with. We have to move on here and get the gardaí out on the beat meeting the people and standing with the people, and they will stand with the gardaí. However, at the moment we do not have the supports and there is antisocial behaviour. Sulky races are another huge problem. There was a march about it on Saturday in Clonmel. It is a huge problem. We must have more resources for our gardaí.

I thank Deputy McGrath. Time is up. The Taoiseach to respond.

We are providing very substantial resources to An Garda Síochána. There has been substantial change in terms of the recruitment processes. We have increased recruitment age and training allowance, shortened recruitment timeframes, reform of the physical competency test and the introduction of the assessment-centred approach to elements of recruitment. We had two recruitment campaigns in 2025, and likewise again in 2026. The numbers are increasing, but they need to increase more. We need to be very consistent in the allocation of resources to the Garda recruitment programme, but also more broadly in terms of equipment and supports to An Garda Síochána, which we are doing.