Garda recruitment cuts - We may face greater risk of violence

Prior to the last general election, the Government promised to recruit extra gardaí. About 1,180 new recruits were taken into the Garda Training College at Templemore this year but, with the budgetary cuts, that number is going to drop by more than 66% to a mere 400 next year.

The Garda budget for 2009 has been cut by 2%, or €26.7 million. There will be a cut of 33% in Garda overtime, but the bulk of the savings will be in recruitment cuts.

It will be the first time since the late 1980s that recruitment has been cut. This makes a mockery of the manpower increases promised by the then justice minister, Michael McDowell, in the run-up to last year’s general election. The last time recruitment was cut back, Damien McCarthy, vice-president of the Garda Representative Association, warned that it had a knock-on effect over a number of years. More gardaí were retiring than were being recruited, and society suffered in that criminal elements were able to extend their influence during those years.

Once criminal gangs become established in an area, it is extremely difficult to dislodge them. Moreover, they tend to extend their influence to other areas.

The spread of the crime culture and the influence of drugs is like a cancer that must be cut out. The public demand for action tends to die down in between huge outrages.

While the drug gangs are killing each other off, many people may be content to ignore the problem, but society becomes very exercised when totally innocent individuals get caught in the crossfire. There was general public outrage, for instance, when the unfortunate Shane Geoghegan was murdered in Limerick in November in an apparent case of mistaken identity.

Are all the assurances given in the wake of his murder going to turn out as empty as the recruitment promises? If the promised resources are devoted to tackle the gangland situation in Limerick, or elsewhere, will this leave other places more vulnerable in the wake of recruitment cutbacks?

It isn’t just the innocent civilians who are being hit by the gang violence, mistakenly or otherwise. Gardaí have been the object of violent assaults that have become more frequent and more violent.

These assaults are not confined to areas recognised as gang strongholds, or drug areas. A garda was seriously injured when gardaí were attacked after being called to deal with a disturbance in a local authority housing estate in Clonmel on Halloween. There have also been numerous instances throughout the country of Garda cars being deliberately rammed. Injured members of the force must be allowed time to recover and recuperate, but this could render their colleagues all the more vulnerable to attacks.

Such attacks could become trendy among certain elements unless they are stamped out. Gardaí will become all the more vulnerable in those areas, but ultimately any innocent people throughout society could become a victim of this violence.