Sinn Féin spokesperson on Justice, Pa Daly, has slammed Fine Gael’s record on policing and community safety as Fine Gael launched Law and Order proposals today.

Pa Daly said:

“Considering recent coverage of certain violent events, Fine Gael has little credibility talking about safer streets.

“They have been in power for 14 years now and have held the Justice portfolio for all of that time. In that period, policing and community safety have progressively deteriorated.

“We have reached a situation, under Fine Gael, where people in many parts of the state no longer feel safe on the streets of our towns and cities.

“This is the real legacy of Fine Gael Justice Ministers.

“Central to Fine Gael’s disastrous policy approach in Justice has been the downgrading of An Garda Síochána and the lack of respect or leadership shown to Gardaí.

“There are now around 100 fewer Gardaí than there were in 2020.

“Fine Gael, the self-styled ‘party of law and order’ are providing a mere €78m for Garda recruitment – the self-styled ‘party of law and order’ are literally planning to fall way short of their target of 6,000 extra guards.

“Presence of Gardaí in both rural and urban areas is essential yet FG has even failed to recruit to the Garda Reserve, let alone An Garda Síochána. Policing is a much worse position now.

“Sinn Féin is allocating €189m to recruit 5,200 Gardaí. Our policies are backed up with sufficient funding – over €100m more than the amount Fine Gael is prepared to commit.

“We have outlined thoughtful proposals to keep our communities safe by putting Guards back on our streets with the resources they need to do their jobs safely and effectively.

“Sinn Féin is committed to making our streets and our communities safe and that is exactly what we will do in government.”