Garda numbers still falling: Resources are the central issue

JUSTICE Minister Frances Fitzgerald repeatedly, and with considerable force, asserted last week that Garda resources were not an issue in the fight against crime. Figures we publish today clearly contradict that position.

Despite enlisting 300 recruits last year garda numbers fell in more than half of the country’s garda divisions. Many parts of the country face an ongoing reduction in garda numbers and services, despite a very marginal overall increase in the force’s strength. Replacements do not keep pace with retirements.

Those who have fallen victim to crime, especially in rural areas where gardaí are as scarce as corncrakes, understand only too well what a reduction in on-the-ground policing means. Highly mobile, and well-informed gangs based in faraway urban centres are more or less free to come and go as they please. In urban centres gangland thugs feel so untouchable that they murder opponents without fear of retribution and threaten journalists who have the courage to focus on their evil empires. Most importantly they destroy communities by selling drugs and ruling with an iron fist.

There are many reasons for this; the kind of inefficiencies and culture highlighted by the recent GSOC report, early retirement deals out of kilter with the rest of society and, like it or not, a debilitating shortage of resources. Everyone else can see this, so why can’t the minister?