Early public retirements - Recklessness caused this brain drain

IT is less than reassuring that so many senior gardaí have decided to opt for early retirement at a time when drug arrests have reached record levels.

When considering crime figures, it is always important to retain a sense of perspective but the Central Statistics Office confirmation that gardaí made a drugs arrest every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day, in the 12 months to the end of June, should give us all pause for thought.

Controlled-drugs offences are up 15% in that period, with 23,749 offences detected. This is reflected in the increasingly violent culture which has seen so many young men murdered right across the country. This upward trend is reflected in nearly every area of serious crime.