An Garda Síochána: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-13 ============================================================ Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel The Minister of State is welcome to the House. I commend my Fine Gael colleagues on tabling a well thought-out motion. We can never speak highly enough or often enough in this House in support of An Garda Síochána. Over the years we have discussed An Garda Síochána frequently in this House. They have had many challenges and too many members of the force have lost their lives in the line of duty. We always remember them for the service they gave to the State, which was the ultimate price, and we think of their families as well. The gardaí in this country have a fantastic relationship with the community and that is something that An Garda Síochána is built on. That is why we need to see more gardaí among our community. Their mere presence is a deterrent to a whole raft of different issues, from antisocial behaviour to robbery to just young fellas acting the maggot. I agree with the comments about the morale within An Garda Síochána. It certainly has improved in recent times and that is something that absolutely has to be welcomed because, for too long and too often, we have heard gardaí talking about the low morale, so that is a positive. However, morale will improve even further if they are respected with proper recompense in terms of allowances and expenses to ensure they are not out of pocket through doing their duty. We need to safeguard them as well. The motion alludes to issuing them with separate licences so if they are on the unfortunate side of a chase that they are protected. The recent initiative of equipping gardaí with body cameras will provide them with protection. We had a situation where anybody could record a garda except a garda themselves. That was bizarre. In my county of Clare, and my own area of Clare which the Minister of State is very familiar with, there has been an unfortunate rise in antisocial behaviour. We need to see an extra shift of An Garda Síochána in the Ennistymon district. The problem is if there is a shift during which a garda has to attend an incident which then necessitates somebody being arrested, they have to be brought to Ennis to be detained. That is a round trip of an hour at a minimum but more likely two to three hours because of the paperwork involved and so on. The area is then exposed when the car has gone to Ennis. That needs to be addressed. We are hitting the summer period now and we are going to see thousands of people descend on County Clare for what will hopefully be a very nice and pleasant summer. In my area we need to see an extra couple of gardaí on the shifts so if there is a situation where action has to be taken, at least cover exists. In Ennis there was a recent briefing with Oireachtas Members and local councillors regarding the issue of manpower in Ennis. We need to see more gardaí. I acknowledge the progress that has been made and it is great to see the numbers of gardaí that are out on patrol now. That is very positive. We need to see that percolate right down to places that might not necessarily have benefited such as County Clare and other areas. This is a motion of support for An Garda Síochána. That is something I welcome, endorse, support and encourage. As I said at the outset, anything we can say or do in this House to highlight the fantastic work of An Garda Síochána and support them in the work they do is something we should do, should welcome and encourage. --- 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