An Garda Síochána
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-01
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Darren O'Rourke (SF), Meath East

There are 220,000 people in County Meath and there are 323 gardaí. Whatever way we cut it up, rural or urban, and the division between them, that is nowhere near enough. I have two specific points. Some of it is the responsibility of the Garda Commissioner. The resource allocation model has to be reflective of the growing population and of the demands in the community. One of the issues is the number of training stations. The number of stations that new recruits can actually be deployed to is limited. That has to be reviewed. The Minister of State has a target set out, and she referenced the annual service plan, of 14,820 sworn gardaí by the end of the year. Will she hit that target?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-01