Answers needed over significant drop in Garda numbers at Clontarf Garda Station – Denise Mitchell TD
18 March 2025
Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Bay North, Denise Mitchell TD has said that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s failure to address policing numbers is seriously undermining the community’s safety by significantly diminishing the deterrence of crime.
Commenting on figures presented in the Irish Independent today, Deputy Mitchell said it was not good enough that Clontarf Garda Station has lost 11 Gardaí over the course of a year.
Deputy Mitchell added that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s failure to address the problem of too few gardaí to meet the needs of an increased population was a dereliction of duty, that the Minister Jim O’Callaghan must now tackle this issue seriously as a matter of urgency, and that this would only be done by increasing the training capacity of An Garda Síochána.
Teachta Mitchell said:
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s failure to address policing numbers is seriously undermining the community’s safety by significantly diminishing the deterrence of crime.
“Figures presented today show that Clontarf Garda Station had 64 Gardaí in December 2023. By December 2024 that number was only 53. Howth Garda Station also saw a loss of 3 gardaí – down to 20 gardaí – in the same period.
“The lack of gardaí has very serious consequences for our community in terms of deterring crime, investigating crime and ensuring that people feel safe.
“Successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have failed to properly plan for and address this issue for more than a decade. This is a dereliction of duty, and communities right across the state are now paying the consequences.
“There is a serious problem in terms of garda visibility, particularly in terms of the lack of community gardaí. Until there is a significant increase in the training capacity of An Garda Síochána, this problem will not be fixed.
“Sinn Féin has called for Garda numbers statewide to be increased to 16,000. Minister Jim O’Callaghan, as a matter of urgency, must put a plan in place to achieve this to ensure that every community has a sufficient amount of gardaí assigned to local stations such as ours in Clontarf.”
