Gardaí’s time being wasted on admin jobs instead of protecting communities

Garda bosses are failing to protect frontline policing and “must immediately” start replacing 1,500 gardaí doing office work with civilian staff.

The Garda Inspectorate said “hundreds of thousands” of garda hours were being “wasted across the country” on administrative duties – instead of being used to protect communities.

In a snapshot survey it found that less than half of 999 calls on a selected Saturday night in four garda divisions were responded to within 15 minutes and that there were “insufficient units at peak demand times”.