Shortfall of gardaí ‘incredibly unfair’ on midlands, says TD

The system of policing in Ireland “is a broken garda model”, Longford Westmeath TD Sorca Clarke has told the Dáil. The matter was raised as part of a private members motion on An Garda Síochána. Dáil members were told there are fewer serving members in 2026 than six years ago, at 14,187 available members at the end of January 2026, in contrast to 14,235 members in 2020.

Accounting for population growth, the fall in numbers means that there are now 10% fewer gardaí per capita than five years ago. The Dáil was told that the Programme for Government committed to recruiting at least 5,000 new garda recruits and additional garda staff by 2030.

Speaking on the matter Deputy Sorca Clarke, said the shortfall of gardaí was apparent. The TD, whose constituency is split across two separate garda divisions, said: “…the number of gardaí in Meath Westmeath is 551. That area is 4,200 sq km, Roscommon Longford has 581 gardaí and that area is over 9,000 sq km. I do not need a spreadsheet to tell me that we do not have enough gardaí in our towns, villages and rural communities.”

The Sinn Féin TD gave an example of the issue: “There was recently a meeting in Rochfortbridge, Westmeath, on road safety and roads policing. The garda who attended, a very dedicated garda heading the traffic corps, came from Navan, which is 50km away.

“What does that say to the people of Rochfortbridge? What does it say to the people of a small rural community if the head of the traffic corps has to travel 50km from a major town to their little rural village? It says their concerns are not being heeded and will always be of lower priority than those of other areas. That is incredibly unfair.”

Deputy Clarke said it was a difficulty across the constituency: “It is also incredibly unfair for the people living in Longford, who, when they call the garda station to get a response to an incident, are told the gardaí cannot go out because they cannot leave the station unstaffed. That is not a functioning garda model; that is a broken garda model. It is also unfair on our gardaí.”

Deputy Clarke said the effort of law enforcement in the face of such challenges was commendable: “Mullingar gardaí secured the first conviction for human trafficking in this state. That did not come about by chance. That came about through dedication, good policing and an absolute determination to see that to the end. This needs to be fixed. Sinn Féin has put forward proposal after proposal but the minister needs to act on them because my constituents deserve better.”