Local Community Safety Partnerships
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14
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Gary Gannon (SD), Dublin Central

It was not just councillors; TDs were also eligible to go to the joint policing committee structure. I was a regular attender at meetings of my local joint policing committee. Here is my issue. We constantly hear about a large Garda presence in the city centre. This is something the Minister has championed. I will possibly discuss that again later. However, I will give the example of communities like Cabra or even Drumcondra, which is actually covered by Ballymun Garda station. In Cabra last week, a constituent of mine was going around the Bogies roundabout. A load of lads wearing balaclavas came past on scooters. The man in question tried to ring the local Garda station in Cabra but he got no answer, so he had this innovative solution. He rang the Garda station in Rathmines. The call was answered but, obviously, the gardaí there could not process the complaint. The man's action was born of frustration. We are not getting gardaí in Cabra. We are not getting gardaí to respond to burglaries in Drumcondra. I am sure the Minister is hearing this on the same doors in the same way I am. They do not have representation on the community forum structures set up to address these issues. We are in a bit of a quagmire here in the sense that Garda numbers are not reflective of what we are being told in the communities outside the commercial city centre. The prospect for representation on the structures does not exist because the superintendents are not there.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14