An Garda Síochána: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-13 ============================================================ Joanne Collins (SF), Agricultural Panel I welcome the Minister of State. I acknowledge the extraordinary service, dedication and sacrifice that gardaí make across this State. They put their lives on the line every day. Every single day, gardaí put themselves in harm to protect others, serve their communities and make people feel safe. I remember the 90 gardaí who lost their lives in the line of duty. No one in this House should underestimate the importance of An Garda Síochána to communities across Ireland. We are speaking to this motion on investment, recruitment and visibility in An Garda Síochána, but rural communities in Ireland have a different experience in this regard. In rural Ireland, people do not measure safety by Government press releases or funding announcements and figures. They measure it by whether they see a Garda station open in their town or Garda patrols on their rural roads. They measure it by how long it takes assistance to arrive when they ring for help. Increasingly, people across rural communities feel abandoned. Across rural counties, Garda stations have been closed, opening hours have been reduced and front-line visibility has diminished over many years. Communities that once had a local Garda station presence now see those stations sitting idle and shuttered, while people are expected to rely on services that are many miles away, in some cases. For older people living alone, small business owners, farming families and isolated rural communities, the closure of a Garda station has a profound impact. It is not just about safety but confidence and reassurance. The local Garda station was never just a building; it represented presence, connection and trust within a community. We cannot speak about supporting gardaí while continually hollowing out policing infrastructure in rural Ireland. Another major concern is the clear lack of roads policing across rural Ireland. For the past couple of weeks, probably for a month or more, the transport committee has looked at the issue of road safety. A lot of the time, with every group that comes in, we come back to the issue of Garda numbers and the amount of roads policing we have. Each group said that incidents of road fatalities or major injuries from road accidents would decrease if there were more gardaí on the roads. People can see this themselves. Dangerous driving has become increasingly common on rural roads. Excessive speeding, dangerous overtaking, drug driving and the use of mobile phones behind the wheel are putting people at risk every day. Yet, many rural communities rarely see policing units. At a time when road deaths are rising and families continue to suffer devastating losses, a serious question must be asked - where are the Garda resources on our rural roads? Rural Ireland has a unique road network, with long distances, narrow roads, poor lighting and limited public transport options. For many people, driving is not an option; it is essential. This makes effective road policing all the more important in our rural areas. We need significant increased investment in dedicated road policing units, particularly in our rural counties. We need greater Garda visibility on secondary and regional roads, not just on our motorways and urban routes. A Garda car on a rural road will not only slow traffic and deter reckless behaviour, it will also save lives. I acknowledge the pressures gardaí are under. Many gardaí in rural stations are overstretched, under-resourced and covering vast geographical areas. Recruitment alone will not solve these problems unless those new gardaí are deployed into front-line, rural policing roles. Communities want to see Garda numbers translated into real local presence. This motion refers to the high-visibility policing operation. Rural communities deserve that visibility too. Members will become sick of my giving out about rural communities not seeing enough, but that is the theme to my day. Too often, resources are concentrated in urban centres, while towns and villages in rural Ireland are forgotten about. I see that where I live. I have never passed a checkpoint on a rural road. The last time I saw a checkpoint - I noted this at the transport committee this morning - was during Covid when gardaí asked us where we were going. That is the last time I saw a checkpoint and I have travelled on lots of roads around County Limerick. I acknowledge that we have a new Garda station opening in Newcastle West later this year. It is a fantastic, modern facility for the town and the wider west Limerick region. It is badly needed but there are concerns that we will not have the gardaí to staff this fantastic new building. Those in the community with whom I have spoken are asking fair questions in this regard. What is the point in investing millions of euro in new infrastructure when we do not have enough front-line gardaí available to provide the policing that is needed with this infrastructure? Rural communities do not need buildings alone. They need boots on the ground, gardaí visible in their towns and villages, gardaí patrolling rural roads and available to respond quickly when incidents occur. I have seen this issue in Newcastle West. We do not have enough gardaí when a serious accident occurs on the main road, the N21. Those gardaí are pulled to the accident and, if something else happens, no other gardaí are available. The Garda station is more or less closed At the end of the day, crime does not stop at a city boundary. Rural crime is a major issue and we have all heard about it in this Chamber. Burglary, farm, fuel and machinery theft and antisocial behaviour impact rural communities. People in rural Ireland deserve to have the same sense of security. I am delighted this motion has been brought forward because I am a true advocate for An Garda Síochána and the need to see its numbers increase everywhere, not just in cities and towns. I would like to see our community gardaí come back. I know a lot of people near me would love to see our community policing ramped up again because they were a part of our community. --- 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/seanad/2026-05-13/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-13