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The Social Democrats are today focussing on crime, with co-leader Róisín Shortall, in response to the shocking crimes in Drogheda and Dublin this week, highlighting the failures of investment in community policing and in communities, particularly disadvantaged communities, that have contributed to a growth in awful gangland activity.

Shortall said: “The immediate, very serious gangland challenges need to be tackled urgently. Gardaí must have all the resources they need to deal with the shocking incidents of violence we’ve seen this week.”

“However, there are longer term issues that must be dealt with. We’re seeing many places across the country where involvement in drugs and lawlessness has become attractive to a group of young people for many reasons. This is an issue that must be addressed at community level and at a policing level.

“For some unfathomable reason the last two governments, led by Fine Gael, have reduced the number of community gardaí in Dublin alone by 43% over nine years – from 510 to 298 Gardaí. Community Gardaí are a crucial part of the picture in addressing the progression into lawlessness at the earliest stage and the failure to resource this service is a failure of the responsibility of Government.

At heart of all this is that this government is just not interested in the wider issue of equality. This Fine Gael government really only caters to the top 30% of the population. Targeted investment in areas of disadvantage has been reduced and we’re no longer seeing the investment in community necessary to stop these kind of incidents becoming the norm.

“Neither has this Fine Gael government been fully focussed on tackling the issue of drugs. Myself and nine other former ministers of state with responsibility for drugs took the unprecedented step of co-signing a statement calling on the Government to act urgently to support their own National Drugs Strategy, which is in danger of collapsing because of the undermining of the strategic partnerships with communities.

If we don’t invest in communities, particularly communities ravaged by austerity, then all of us pay the price in the longer term.”

ENDS.

19th Jan 2020

Notes to editors: 

Details on the number of Community Gardaí and overall Gardaí referred to in the statement are included in the tables below. Full details by Division are available from the Department of Justice and Equality at the links:

http://justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/Community_Policing

http://justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/Garda_Workforce

Community Gardaí by Division 2008 – Nov 2019
DIVISION 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Nov-19
D.M.R. EAST 40 40 30 20 29 27 30 32 34 28 25
D.M.R. NORTH 71 76 76 86 68 57 58 53 47 51 39
D.M.R. NORTH CENTRAL 178 159 140 143 152 139 121 110 90 83 79
D.M.R. SOUTH 56 48 52 59 53 45 53 39 40 42 41
D.M.R. SOUTH CENTRAL 82 96 99 84 58 43 38 34 30 28 48
D.M.R. WEST 83 89 83 80 68 62 63 53 64 63 66
TOTAL 510 508 480 472 428 373 363 321 305 295 298
Garda Number by Division 2008 – Nov 2019
DIVISION 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Nov-19
D.M.R. EAST 483 473 452 420 407 388 377 376 378 381 370
D.M.R. NORTH 832 803 779 744 714 681 668 676 670 715 749
D.M.R. NORTH CENTRAL 719 693 660 654 624 607 590 612 611 655 697
D.M.R. SOUTH 642 632 605 588 569 549 541 549 532 551 575
D.M.R. SOUTH CENTRAL 776 771 735 700 686 642 627 630 622 648 800
D.M.R. WEST 789 788 771 744 717 699 688 673 672 709 785
TOTAL 4241 4160 4002 3850 3717 3566 3491 3516 3485 3659 3976

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