Drew Harris rules out overtime to get more gardaí on streets of Cork City

Independent councillor Thomas Maloney called for the blanket approval of overtime pending the arrival of new recruits.

But Mr Harris insisted the issue is not about money but is about getting more people into the force.

The drop in the city's garda figures emerged just days after a fatal stabbing in the city centre. A man is before the courts charged in relation to the incident.

Fatal stabbing

The stabbing, which occurred in front of dozens of onlookers on a busy plaza off Grand Parade in the late evening sunshine, sparked a wide debate about the safety of the city’s streets, criticism about the apparent lack of a visible garda presence, and renewed calls for high visibility policing in the city centre.

Mr Harris faced several calls from political and business leaders at Monday's JPC for increased garda visibility on the streets.

Mr Maloney said a decade ago, 24 detectives were based at Anglesea Street garda station but the figure is now down to 12.

“Mayfield District is down seven detectives. Gurranabraher District is down four detectives. The resources in the divisional drugs unit have been slashed from two sergeants and 16 detectives 10 years ago to one sergeant and nine detectives today. This is despite the fact that the city is awash with drugs,” he said.

These challenges are not going away and if we don’t get the resources and the new recruits coming out of Templemore, we are going to be even more challenged.”

He called for “blanket approval for overtime” to get more gardaí on the streets pending the arrival of additional gardaí.

But Mr Harris said he could not agree to blanket overtime which at a point becomes a null game when staff get tired and are not productive in the workplace.

He insisted that the organisation is committed to recruitment and to expanding.

“The constraint isn’t money. The constraint is actually the recruitment process and getting people into An Garda Síochána," he said.