Dublin ‘has too few gardaí to do job’
THERE are not enough gardaí to effectively police Dublin, the largest garda association warned yesterday.
There are now just 36 more officers stationed in the city compared to 2014, despite 930 new recruits being deployed to the capital, according to figures from the Garda Representative Association.
It comes just weeks after a survey into the wellbeing of frontline gardaí found 27% of the rank-and-file are described as ‘walking wounded’ when it comes to their mental health.
It also recently emerged that more than a fifth of Garda stations have no access to the internet so are not connected to Garda network systems such as Pulse, although this does not apply to any Garda stations in the capital.
Earlier this year, it emerged the number of community gardaí had been axed by almost 40% in the past seven years. The figure continued to fall since the deadly Hutch-Kinahan feud began in Dublin in 2016, dropping from 121 gardaí in 2015 to 110 in 2016 and 90 last year.
Yesterday the GRA said total numbers of gardaí in three of the city’s six Garda divisions are below 2014 levels.
GRA spokesman John O’Keeffe said: ‘Overall the number posted to stations nationwide has increased only by 688 as a result of the deployment of 1,961 new recruits.
‘Wicklow has suffered a net loss of 12 gardaí since 2014 while there has been no change in staffing levels in Donegal over the same period.
‘Put simply, and according to best local international practice, there are still not enough police officers per head of population in Ireland to serve their communities in order to achieve normative policing outcomes.
‘More worryingly, on current projections, nor does it appear that there will be.’
The GRA believes there is a ‘gaping hole in middle management’ to ‘guide, train and supervise new recruits.