Galway East TD and Minister for Rural Affairs Seán Canney has called for more civilian administrators to allow gardai to focus on crime prevention and detection.
Minister Canney said: “The secret of success is crime prevention so we need gardai to do less administrative duties and more direct policing.
“Community policing is essential and our gardai need to be more visible in our areas.
“Crime is a huge concern in Rural Ireland. Criminals are becoming more sophisticated with increased use of surveillance and technology so we need to give the gardai both the time they need and the modern technology they require to respond.
“There is no point gardai spending time form-filling when these duties can be carried out by others.
“We also need to increase recruitment. We are paying the price of past failures to keep pace with recruitment needs during the austerity years.
“This is being addressed but growing the force will take time because many new recruits are replacing retiring gardai and there are only so many new gardai that can be trained at any one time at Templemore.”

For more information, contact Minister Canney on 086-2513639
February 1 2020