Garda Commissioner to deny force has policy to cut numbers in roads-policing unit

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris will tell the committee hearing — convened specifically to discuss the issue of road safety — that 'additional Garda members are becoming available and are being deployed to priority areas'. File photo: Leon Farrell/RollingNews.ie

There is no policy within An Garda Síochána to reduce the number of roads-policing gardaí, the Garda Commissioner is set to claim.

It emerged recently that just four gardaí have been added to the roads-policing roster in the past seven years, despite the surge in road fatalities seen over the past 18 months.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris will tell the Oireachtas Transport Committee on Wednesday, however, that “there is certainly no organisational policy to reduce numbers in our roads policing units”.

Mr Harris will tell the committee hearing — convened specifically to discuss the issue of road safety — that “additional Garda members are becoming available and are being deployed to priority areas”.

He will reiterate the Government's oft-repeated figure that 75 new roads-policing gardaí are slated to be added to the roster both this year and next, adding that the force is “proactively recruiting into our roads-policing units” with competitions currently underway in the eastern, northwestern, and southern regions.

The commissioner will also single out a recent Garda directive — which sees all frontline gardaí mandated to perform at least 30 minutes of high-visibility roads policing on each shift — for praise.

Sinn Féin transport spokesperson Martin Kenny, a member of the committee, recently dismissed that policy as “a ploy” in the Dáil stating that “when I speak to gardaí they tell me that they’re doing that anyway”.

Mr Harris will nevertheless say that in just over a month that directive has seen “increases in detections” compared with a four-week period culminating in March.

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Those increases include a 55% hike in fixed charge notices for mobile phone use while driving, a 40% jump in the number of breath tests conducted at mandatory intoxicant checkpoints, and a 17% increase in detections of people driving under the influence.

Frontline gardaí were in fact responsible for the vast majority, 70%, of driving-under-the-influence detections in 2023, Mr Harris will tell the committee.

He will add that he shares the “deep concern” of elected representatives regarding the currently heightened level of fatalities.

“For An Garda Siochana, any death on our roads is one too many,” he will say, while caveating that gardaí “cannot solve this alone” as collaboration with other State bodies like the Road Safety Authority is essential to that end.