Rapid Population Increase Must Be A Factor in Deployment of Gardaí

Press Release, 7th November 2006

Minister for Justice, Mr. Michael McDowell today in the Dáil informed Catherine Murphy, TD that the Garda Commissioner will consider her constituency of North Kildare for the deployment of additional resources due to the significant increase in population experienced in recent years.

The Minister stated “Population growth in the Deputy’s constituency has been considerable in recent times and therefore the Commissioner is paying particular attention to such areas.  It is in such areas that the proportion of gardaí to residents has declined most.”

“It’s vitally important that the Gardaí we have are deployed and employed in the most effective manner possible, I’ve always said that the civilianisation of certain roles within the force would help to return many of our Gardaí to non-desk based duties and increase the effectiveness of the force in general, and so I’d be encouraging the Minister to take this stance on the development of the force so that communities in rapidly growing areas like North Kildare get the level of service they need.” – Murphy

Murphy has welcomed this official acknowledgement from the Minister of significant problems arising in her constituency due to the under resourcing of the Gardaí.  She also indicated that she will continue to pursue the deployment of additional Garda resources to Kildare until they reach acceptable levels.

During the Dáil Debate Murphy highlighted that Gardaí face an uphill battle responding to instances of damage to public property and public order issues so much so that they do not even have the resources to record incidents to which they are called unless arrests are made.  As a result, she indicated that many residents in her constituency are becoming disillusioned with the function of reporting such crimes.

The Minister’s response directly preceded the release of two reports commissioned by the Garda Inspectorate, headed up by former Boston Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole and policing expert Senator Maurice Hayes, in which the increased civilianisation of certain functions within the force is recommended.

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Posted by catherinemurphy on January 31, 2007. Filed under In the Dáil,Kildare,Law, Justice, Defence & Policing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.