Irish Examiner view: Thin blue line getting thinner

No surprise to hear that Garda resources in Ireland fall below European average

A decade ago, there were 24 detectives based at the city’s Anglesea Street Garda Station, but the figure is now down to 12.

It came as no great surprise to the people of Cork to learn that policing numbers in the Republic are below the European average and “far below” nations with the highest police-to-population ratios.

Just 48 hours before a specialist report for the Oireachtas parliamentary budget office confirmed that Ireland stood a lowly 21 in a comparison table, and that there had been a “significant divergence” in recent years between government targets and recruitment reality, Cork’s joint policing committee heard that the city Garda division has 23 fewer gardaí than it had three years ago — the figure went from 638 in 2016 to a high of 730 in 2021, but now stood at 707.