Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2026-03-19 ============================================================ Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow I thank Deputy Healy for raising this issue. We are seeing very significant increase in the number of gardaí entering training in Templemore. It is a huge priority for the Government to increase the number of gardaí. I am absolutely disgusted and angered to hear about any assault on a member of An Garda Síochána. When I was justice Minister, we changed the law to increase the sentencing available to the courts for anybody who assaults a member of our emergency services, including a member of An Garda Síochána. An attack on a garda is an attack on our democracy and an attack on all of us. One of the reasons we are rolling out bodycams is to provide protection for gardaí. People often stick a camera in a garda's face and the garda is left having to endure that. It is really important that bodycams are rolled out. I will speak directly to the Minister who, I know, will raise the Deputy's view on garda numbers in south Tipperary with the Commissioner. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-19/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-19