Cork city has lost three gardaí a week since beginning of the year

CORK City’s Garda Division has lost three gardaí each week since the beginning of the year.

According to An Garda Síochána’s human resources directorate figures, there were 699 gardaí in Cork city at the end of December 2023, but this had reduced to 673 by February 29, a loss of 26 gardaí.

In response to a query from The Echo, the Garda Press Office reiterated its position that it does not comment on the specific details of numbers/members attached to specific units.

“This can vary on a month-to-month basis due to many variables including Garda members’ personal circumstances, family-friendly transfer policies, promotions, and retirements,” a spokesperson said.

Cork North Central Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould has demanded that Justice Minister Helen McEntee visit the city as a matter of urgency to explain the decline in Garda numbers.

“At this stage, Cork city is haemorrhaging gardaí and the Garda commissioner and chief superintendent must report to the people a plan to resolve this,” said the TD.

Fine Gael Gael TD for Cork North Central Colm Burke told Ms McEntee about the need for additional gardaí for Cork City.

He also referred to the civilian segment of the Garda workforce, 3,100 civilian employees out of a total of 17,100, which he said that a lot of administrative work which Gardaí had had to do was now being undertaken by their civilian colleagues.

“You have to remember when we came into Government in 2011, the Garda Training College was closed,” said Deputy Burke.

“The number of people actually physically working under the control of the Garda Commissioner has increased and will continue to happen.

“If you look at the work the Gardaí have done over the last three months, both in relation to serious crime and the number of cases where they’ve identified the movements of drugs and illegal substances, there’s a lot of work being done.” 

In response to Deputy Gould’s demand that Minister McEntee visits Cork city he said that she had been down at the end of last August and met with the Cork Chamber of Commerce and had opened the new Garda Station in Rathcormac in September.

He also stated that, under Fine Gael Justice Ministers, there had been significant improvements in the Garda car fleet as well as advances in computerisation.

However, Mr Gould described the current Garda stregh in Cork as a "shocking indictment" of Government failure.

“We must see an initial return to 2022 Garda numbers and then further increases to bring us in line with EU averages.

The TD pointed out that the average EU policing strength was 333 officers per 100,000 people.

“This leaves us with a Garda strength of just 300 per 100,000 population,” said Deputy Gould.

“Cork has less Gardaí per head of population than the EU average.

“That is a shocking indictment of the failure by Fine Gael, over the last decade they have held the Justice ministry, to properly resource and protect our Gardaí.”