Concern over garda numbers in Kildare
Deputy Catherine Murphy
KILDARE continues to suffer relatively when it comes to Garda resources, a Kildare North TD has said.
Deputy Catherine Murphy (Ind) TD for Kildare North said last week that she had invited senior members of An Garda Síochána to Leinster House to discuss her concerns over the levels of Garda resources in the county.
Deputy Murphy said CSO figures show that Kildare had the fourth largest opulation in the country, yet figures obtained by her on Garda resources show that Kildare suffers most in terms of Garda deployment out of all other counties when population size is taken into account. “The most recent figures show us that 316 Gardaí are stationed in Kildare. Per head of population, that works out at 663 people per Garda. This compares significantly less favourably to areas such as Roscommon/Longford and Sligo/Leitrim where the figures are 371 persons per Garda and 318 persons per Garda respectively.”
She said Kildare is also at almost twice the national average figure of 390 persons per Garda. “Even allowing for differences in crime rates across regions, clearly the rapid expansion of population in Kildare has not been met with a commensurate increase in Garda resources for the county.” “The situation whereby area with less than half the population of Kildare retain virtually the same number of Gardaí must be re-examined. I’ll be raising these issues and associated policing matters with the Gardaí in the hope of seeking a broad re-assessment of how staff are deployed around the country.” Deputy Murphy also indicated that she had invited all of the TDs from Kildare North and Kildare South to the meeting.
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Weather for Naas, Ireland
Friday 24 May 2013
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