Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed)
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Government is not lax on crime and has allocated significant additional resources this year and last year, and will continue to do so.
Fundamentally, we are recruiting more gardaí which is important. In 2026, we funded the recruitment of a further 1,000 new gardaí and 200 more Garda staff and additional Garda reserve this year. At the end of April, the overall Garda workforce was over 18,000, particularly in the Dublin metropolitan region, where it was close to 4,000 gardaí assigned on the same date. We have equipped gardaí in that three divisions are now the site of proof of concept for body-worn cameras and the trial of deployment of conductive energy devices, CEDs, to train front-line gardaí. We are continuing to work on the resourcing of An Garda Síochána.
We also now have youth diversion programmes in every part of the country. Children must engage with youth diversion programmes or else they will be dealt with through the criminal justice system. We need a wider societal approach to this. Young people throwing stones at a woman with a buggy is shocking and appalling behaviour, and parents, families and communities in society also have to take responsibility here. However, there are many positive things happening across society, with many volunteers doing extraordinary work with young people, in sporting clubs and in a variety of social and youth clubs and cultural organisations. All that must be equally affirmed and acknowledged, and we resource and support that.
It is our view that greater visibility of gardaí on the street will deter actions of the kind the Deputy has outlined. Where extra gardaí have been deployed, that has been the experience. Gardaí are also reporting significant progress in respect of certain crimes and criminal activity which also needs to be acknowledged. In certain communities, we need something on the model, which the Minister, Deputy Calleary has now developed in respect of the Department of community and rural development with Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer. The whole idea of having particular, co-ordinated resources in certain communities will give a broad-based approach, somewhat like the RAPID programme of a previous era, which can deal on multiple fronts with this phenomenon the Deputy has described.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14