2026-07-01

14. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of gardaí in County Meath; if he is aware that County Meath has for years had the lowest number of gardaí per population in the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48865/26]

The Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and allocation of Garda resources. We are assured by the Commissioner that, when allocating Garda resources, consideration is given to commitments and undertakings outlined in the annual policing plan. The requirements of all Garda divisions nationwide are also taken into account, which include local and national crime trends and workloads, policing arrangements and operational strategies, local population and trends, and geographical area and size. Transfer applications, including welfare, personnel issues and concerns, are also taken into account. Under budget 2026, the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, secured funding of €2.74 billion for An Garda Síochána to support recruitment and staffing. This will support recruitment of up to 1,000 gardaí, 200 more Garda staff and additional members of the Garda Reserve. Significant initiatives have been taken to boost recruitment, which have been reflected in the numbers entering the Garda College, which was just under 800 in 2025. As the Deputy will know, recruitment into An Garda Síochána has gathered real momentum and we are determined to ensure we have a steady pipeline of new recruits into the Garda College so that we can see more gardaí assigned all around the country. Interestingly, the most recent recruitment competition, which closed on 3 June 2026, attracted 4,115 applications. This brings the total number of applications received to join An Garda Síochána to over 15,000 since February 2025. We are informed that as of 31 May 2026, there are 561 gardaí assigned to the Meath-Westmeath division. This includes 323 gardaí assigned to the Meath south and Meath north community engagement areas, which include Ashbourne, Kells, Navan and Trim.

As regards those figures, it is 323 gardaí in Meath compared with 335 in 2020. The current figures are up a little bit on last year but, compared with 2009 and 2010, we have seen practically no increase. At the same time, we have had a very significant increase in population. The Minister of State outlined the type of consideration the Garda Commissioner makes in terms of allocation of resources, and one of them is local population and trends, and geographical area and size. There must be no weight on that consideration, if County Meath is anything to go by. What efforts will the Minister of State make to bring County Meath up the ranking tables in terms of the number of gardaí per population, so that it is at least commensurate with other counties of a similar size?

Obviously, population trends are monitored on a continuous basis, but looking at what we are doing to ensure overall community safety in County Meath, the Department is pleased to secure €8 million in budget 2026 for the national office for community safety to ensure the office carries out its functions, including its support for local community partnerships and the work on the national development of a national strategy for community safety. Much of the Deputy's constituency is obviously rural. One of our success stories is Operation Thor. Several Garda operations are already supporting the plan, such as Operations Thor and Táirge, which tackle burglaries and theft from homes and retail crime, respectively. In recent years, An Garda Síochána has had unprecedented success in reducing and preventing burglaries through Operation Thor. In the ten years since Operation Thor began, burglary and related offences have declined overall, and the number of residential burglaries during the winter months of October to March have fallen by a remarkable 75%.

There are 220,000 people in County Meath and there are 323 gardaí. Whatever way we cut it up, rural or urban, and the division between them, that is nowhere near enough. I have two specific points. Some of it is the responsibility of the Garda Commissioner. The resource allocation model has to be reflective of the growing population and of the demands in the community. One of the issues is the number of training stations. The number of stations that new recruits can actually be deployed to is limited. That has to be reviewed. The Minister of State has a target set out, and she referenced the annual service plan, of 14,820 sworn gardaí by the end of the year. Will she hit that target?

I take the opportunity to commend the gardaí on the street. We are seeing huge effort being put in gardaí, not just in Dublin city but on a nationwide basis. We can see the number of people going through Templemore and the standard of the gardaí coming out of Templemore is really noticeable. Population trends and community trends are always under review. We are using census data to ensure that populations are represented according to increases in the local population. This will be reviewed on a continuous basis. The Deputy's point is well made and I thank him for asking this question.