Dublin city centre's riot-hit areas have 15% fewer gardaí
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The two Dublin city centre Garda stations confronted with unprecedented rioting a fortnight ago have seen their Garda numbers cut by about 15% in the last four years, figures show.
The Oireachtas justice committee heard on Thursday that gardaí were being taken from surrounding divisions to try and increase garda visibility in Dublin city centre, with one TD saying this was “draining” gardaí from those areas.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said the cuts to Store Street Garda Station and Pearse Street Garda Station would inevitably impact visibility and could compromise policing.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee told the justice committee that while parts of the city centre were “not safe” for a period during the rioting, she did not accept gardaí “lost control”.
Separately, the chair of the Dublin City Council Joint Policing Committee Tara Deacy likened the introduction of student gardaí onto the streets next week as akin to being “fed to the wolves” and said some recruits were “only in the door 10 minutes and were gone”.
The concerns come as a raft of official figures underline the scale of the problem:
- Frontline strength at the rank of garda at Store Street Station, in Dublin’s north inner city, dropped from 252 in 2019 to 211 in October 2023 – down 16%;
- Numbers at Pearse Street Station, in Dublin’s south inner city, fell from 251 in 2019 to 216 in October 2023 — down 14%;
- Resignations are now estimated to reach 164 by the end of the year and compare to 109 last year and 70 in 2020;
- A further 323 gardaí are due to retire by the end of December, with a total of 519 members estimated to exit the force;
- Only 237 new gardaí have joined this year, although 150 student gardaí are to attest early next week to boost numbers for Christmas.
GRA general secretary Ronan Slevin said: “The numbers revealed in these statistics will come as no surprise to the hard-pressed members we represent, or the business owners or residents of the city centre.
He said Garda management and the Government seem to think “throwing cash at the overtime budget” is the solution, but said asking a finite group of members to do more was “unsustainable”.
Mr Slevin said they have “failed to address the issues” and said if this continued the "crisis will deepen”.
Sinn Féin TD for Kerry Pa Daly said a garda told him 60 gardaí who responded to calls to come to Dublin were “stranded” at Santry Garda Station, as there were no vehicles to bring them to the city and many had to “stop” a passing bus to get in.
He said gardaí told him one sergeant and four gardaí had been sent from the Dublin South Division into the city centre, saying this was “draining resources” in areas affected.