Mattie McGrath: Warns of Garda manpower crisis in South Tipperary

Good morning. Today I want to speak to you about the escalating crisis in policing across South Tipperary, a crisis made worse by the deplorable policy of neglect, under-resourcing and mismanagement by your government and the previous government. In communities across South Tipperary, from Caldick and Shoe to Clonmel, Halfin, Cair, Castor, Banapurine and Tipperary are telling me people do not feel safe anymore, they do not feel protected. We now have a situation where a single gatherer can be covered in multiple towns and parishes, particularly at night. There is no backup, there is no visibility and there are no patrols. In many of our smaller rural stations, the doors are rarely, if ever, open. Meanwhile, drug activity is creeping further into rural communities and towns and criminals are even getting bored because they know the situation, they know the numbers are not there of Gardaí. But that is what beggars believe the government's decision to push ahead with a disastrous new Garda divisional model which has resulted in Tipperary Garda headquarters being moved to Innes in Caldick. A mad decision. This is centralisation gone daft and the consequences are plain to see. Confusion, lack of local knowledge, moralised front line members and communities who feel abandoned. And now we learn that out of the 120 Garda came out last week, one came to South Tipperary and one left the same day, Gardaí Michael Custon, the wonderful officer who returned to his native Cork and I would thank him for his dedicated service for the last ten years to the people of Caire Castle. So how many of these actually, as I said, none came, one and we lost one, so we are standing still. And all of this is happening while Gardaí are being trained in their hundreds in Tipper Moor and are going to the east coast or to Dublin and they need gas too. But we cannot have them in Dublin at the expense, the absolute expense of the rural areas. And Tornister, I am asking you today, do you accept that South Tipperary is in a grip of a Gardaí manpower crisis, not just a staffing issue, but a public safety emergency? How do you justify the decision to shift the Gardaí headquarters from Tullis to Innes and will it be returned and are the decision reviewed? Can you tell the House exactly how many I just told you, there is only one extra Gardaí cam, so that is the facts of it. And more utterly, will you commit to an adequate increase in Gardaí numbers for South Tipperary so that rural people can feel safe in their homes? This is not just about statistics, it is about real people, farmers, shopkeepers, families, young and old, who no longer feel protected in their own homes. And it is about frontline Gardaí who are doing an excellent job to be prepared to them with no backup, no resources. And indeed we had two quite seriously injured, a Gardaí John Welch, an excellent Gardaí in my area, Saturday Sergeant, he is out wishing well, and Gardaí Philip Ryan. We have actually 12 in the Caire Commonwealth District out seeking, that happens and it is unfortunate, especially if they are injured in duty, a lady Gardaí injured again recently, violently assaulted and it is not good enough, but they need to have numbers. I want to thank Deputy McGrath for raising this issue and I want to I want to join with him in sending best wishes to the local Gardaí that he referenced who experienced assault and attack, and a member of a Gardaí Siakána is an attack on our democracy and should rightly be condemned. And indeed in this House in recent years, indeed under Minister McEntee's leadership, we significantly increased the penalties, the maximum penalties for those who assault a member of a Gardaí Siakána or indeed our emergency services more generally. I want to thank you for highlighting that and join with you in the condemnation of that. As you know, and you will know I am going to say this, but I do have to say it that the Gardaí Commissioner is himself operationally responsible for the allocation of Gardaí resources, but of course the Justice Minister and the Government are responsible for making sure that the Gardaí have the resources, have the budget, have the policy that they need to do their job effectively. I am informed that when allocating and transferring Gardaí members to and from any division, consideration is given to commitments and undertakings outlined in the annual policing plan, looking at local crime trends, workloads, policing arrangements, local population, geographical area size and transfer applications that can arise regarding welfare, personnel issues and concerns. I am told that as of April of this year there are 658 Gardaí assigned to the Clare Tipperary Division and 371 of these Gardaí are assigned to stations in Tipperary. These Gardaí are supported in Tipperary alongside 62 Garda staff. I am also informed that as of the end of May 79 Garda vehicles are assigned to Tipperary also. But the Deputy is right that obviously we do need to significantly increase our Gardaí numbers, and he is also right that there is a direct correlation I believe between people's sense of safety and Gardaí presence and visibility in a community. I think that is absolutely true. He will know what I am going to say, but I am going to say it because I believe it is true. I think the the closure of Tipperary more twice or three times really during first the economic crash which the Fine Gael Labour government then reopened and then during the Covid pandemic did obviously have a significant impact in terms of the pipeline of new Gardaí, but we are back in a situation now where there are currently 14,223 Gardaí members. The number of Gardaí staff has continued to steadily increase over recent years and has reached a record high of 3,501 at the end of 2024 and has dipped ever so slightly to 3,493 as of April this year. In relation to the issue of the transfer from Thirless to Ennis, I will pass your concerns on to the Minister for Justice and ask that he pass them on and engage with the Gardaí Commissioner in relation to that. We want to see a very significant increase in the number of Gardaí over the next number of years. We have the budget, we have Temple more up and running, we have specific commitments in the programme for government in terms of looking at a second college and the options that that might bring and of course that will see more Gardaí across the country including in County Tipperary. Thanks for your reply. It is simply not acceptable that we are standing still and, as I said, officers and I have put this to the Commissioner before. He is putting officers, male and female, in danger, going out in a periode camp on their own to all kinds of incidents. We saw what happened to John Mulch when he had to go out on his own and please God he will recover. It is a terrible situation to have people in that and up and down boarines in the middle of the night on their own. Some days there is no Gardaí available in a care, a care station or casket. Tourist towns and indeed all the villages in the hinterland. It is just not acceptable and it is not fair to the Gardaí members that are there who are doing their best. As I said, the lack of cover and care can assure it is just laughable, it is not laughable, it is so serious. Three Gardaí in a town who used to have 18 and used to have four sergeants, I think they have one sergeant now and the administration is trying to cover it and when we have situations and peaceful protests which we had in Dundrum, I was there myself when the iPads were being moved in and it was always after happening there. We had the siege of Dundrum. I mean 200 Gardaí arrived from the right squad to the dog squad to the equine unit, God knows what, and the cost of it. At the same time there was a house that had been broken in and culling about 15 miles away and no Gardaí to be gotten. That is the normal case. So we have overkill with the Siuchy but it is not acceptable and it is not safe to have Gardaí on their own doing this kind of an area. So I definitely don't mean this in relation to the people of Dundrum, far from it, I have met some of them when I have been in Clomel but we have obviously seen huge pressures and challenges put on the Gardaí in terms of dealing with extremist elements in certain places and they have visited my own constituency as well and I want to thank the Gardaí often in the face of huge abuse, people sticking phones in their faces and all this sort of stuff and having to show considerable restraint trying to keep the peace. So I thank on Gardaí for the work that they do. But I am taking your broader point Deputy McGrann on this occasion agreeing with you that we do need to obviously do more in terms of increasing Gardaí presence and I want to assure you that the programme for government, but not just the programme for government, the pipeline that we are now seeing going through Tempo Moor I believe will see us on a more positive trajectory as a result of the foundations we have put in place over the last number of years. I also want to assure you that the safety of our members when they are out and about patrolling is of paramount importance to the Government, the Minister and the Gardaí Commissioner.