Labour will return Garda numbers to peak levels

Earlier today Fianna Fail accused the Labour Party of not doing enough to combat crime. This politically motivated attack simply does not stand up to scrutiny.

It was Fianna Fail in government who closed Templemore Garda College when they stopped recruiting Gardai.

Friday’s brutal gangland slaying in a hotel in the heart of my own constituency emphasises the need for An Garda Siochana to have the necessary resources to deal with gangland crime.

Labour has started recruiting Gardaí again to combat crime. We are committed to recruiting an additional 500 Gardaí each year to return the force to peak levels of 14,500.

In addition we want to free up a further 1,000 Gardaí for frontline duty by recruiting the same number of civilian staff to make sure our Gardaí are spending their time on the streets of our communities combating crime.

We also plan to create a Garda Serious and Organised Crime Unit to tackle organised crime and we will bring greater consistency to the sentences handed out to criminals by enacting new sentencing legislation.

It is wrong that criminal gangs have such a devastating impact on communities. Labour has a clear plan to combat crime by increasing the number of Gardaí and improving Garda resources to make sure they are fully equipped to keep communities safe.