Government minister calls for more Gardaí on streets after spate of attacks

Rory Fleming

“It gives people great confidence when they see Gardaí on the beat”.

Minsiter for Finance Michael McGrath has called for an increase in the number of Gardaí patrolling the streets.

The Fianna Fáil politician has made this statement off the back of a week which saw an American tourist suffer “life-changing” injuries in a Dublin City Centre attack.

The man in his 50’s was a regular visitor to Ireland, but was assaulted by several teenagers on Wednesday night leaving him with severe head injuries.

This week also saw another man in Galway suffer serious head injuries after an early morning assault left him in critical condition.

Reacting to these events during an event in Cork on Friday, Mr. McGrath said that;

“The Gardaí are undertaking an ambitious recruitment campaign and the Government is anxious to accelerate that in every way we can”.

“We do want to increase Garda visibility, because it gives people great confidence when they see Gardaí on the beat”.

“Unfortunately, given the current strength of the force, we are just not seeing enough of it”.

Minister McGrath has called for additional Gardaí on streets to restore public confidence. (Credit: Rolling News)

Gardaí need recruitment “accelerated”:

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee also spoke to the week’s violent events, with the Fine Gael TD promising additional resources for the Gardaí.

However, Ms. McEntee also stated her belief that regardless of what additional resources were made available, that crimes would still occur.

“I think it is the unfortunate situation that crimes will happen and no matter what you do, no matter what resources are in place, no matter what structures you have, people will commit crimes”, she said.

“It is, unfortunately, the case that no matter what city you’re in, no matter what part of the world, we will have crimes”.

The Minister’s comments regarding additional resources also come after the news that the Gardaí would again miss their recruitment aim of 1,000 new members for this year.

In an effort to try and boost numbers, the Government has signalled that it would consider waiving the cut-off point of 35 years of age to join the Gardaí.

Expressing his own hopes for the expansion of the force, Minister McGrath added that;

“I think we have to try and accelerate the recruitment, and we do need to examine if there is a way of increasing the amount of work that can be done by civilians”.

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