*Photograph: John O’Neill
INCREASED funding has been sought by Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) in Budget 2025 for the recruitment and retaining of Gardaí.
Between 2019 and 2024, Clare has lost almost seven percent of its Garda numbers. This according to Senator Dooley has led to consistent breaches of the peace that represent a “pattern of intimidation”.
Speaking in the Seanad, he said, “We are now heading into the budgetary cycle and it is vital that in September we have a debate on the requirements of the budget. With this in mind, I am calling for more funding to be made available for the recruitment and appointment of Gardaí. We have become desensitised to what are often considered minor breaches of the peace in certain areas”.
Senator Dooley continued, “For example, in Ennis recently a woman who lives alone in the town had her car destroyed by two thugs with hatchets late at night. They broke all the windows and damaged all the panels on the car. This represents another incident in a pattern of intimidation that does not even get reported in the media anymore because it is below the surface. That woman, however, is now out of her home and will never be able to live there again. That says to me that as a society we have become somewhat desensitised to this kind of intimidation”.
Drug crime was flagged by the Mountshannon native who said it has led to further difficulties in Garda recruitment and retention. “Drug dealing and the masterminds behind it are at the core of this, feeding further into the difficulty of recruiting and retaining Gardaí”.
He added, “Gardaí are working very hard to try to address these issues but they are now spread more thinly because of the reconfiguration of services between Clare and Tipperary. It must be recognised that Garda management and Gardaí on the ground are working night and day, might and main, to address these issues but we need numbers.
“We need to pay gardaí adequately, provide the necessary funding to recruit more and put in place the kind of regime that targets these masterminds of the drug trade who are in every village and town. There are a couple of kingpins and, if anything is said, they will intimidate and it goes below the radar. We have to call a halt to that and Garda numbers are absolutely crucial to this”.
