Rural Crime Dail Éireann — 2020-12-10 ============================================================ James Browne (FF), Wexford The Deputy may wish to note that as of 31 October 2020, there were 384 gardaí assigned to the Laois-Offaly division. This represents an increase of 38% since 2015, when there were 278 gardaí assigned to the division. On the same date, there were 38 Garda staff civilians assigned to the division, an increase of almost 73% since 2015, when 22 staff members were assigned to the division. The increase in Garda staff is allowing members of the Garda to return to front-line duties. The Deputy is correct that there were seven community gardaí in Laois-Offaly at the end of October when her parliamentary question was replied to, but I am pleased to inform her that, since then, the number has doubled to 14. This represents a significant increase on the 2015 figure, which stood at four community gardaí. There has since been a significant increase, which I hope will alleviate the Deputy's concerns regarding community policing. --- 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/2020-12-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:55+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-12-10