House burgled during Tipperary asylum seeker protest 'and no garda could be got'
'We had the siege of Dundrum. Two hundred gardaí, from the riot squad and dog squad to the equine unit and God knows what, arrived. Consider the cost of this. At the same time, a house was burgled in Cullen, about 15 miles away, and no garda could be got.'
Independent Tipperary South TD Mattie McGrath has voiced serious concern over the persistent decline in garda numbers, warning the Government that public confidence in policing is “eroding rapidly”.
His comments come after it was revealed that of the 120 gardaí who graduated from Templemore Garda College in the last few weeks, “one came to south Tipperary and one left the same day, so we are standing still”.
The only other additional garda member was assigned to Nenagh - which means Tipperary gained just one garda from the cohort of 120 graduates.
Speaking during Questions in Dáil Éireann on Thursday, June 19, Deputy McGrath highlighted the “unacceptable” lack of visibility and presence of An Garda Síochána in both urban centres and rural communities, especially in counties like Tipperary.
“We are watching crime rise in our towns and villages while Garda Stations are left chronically understaffed and resources stretched thin. Communities are losing faith in the system because they don’t feel protected. That’s the hard truth,” said McGrath.
“As I have put to the Commissioner before, officers, be they male or female, are put in danger if they are sent out on their own in a patrol car to all kinds of incidents. We saw what happened to Garda John Walsh after he had to go out on his own. Please God, he will recover. It is terrible that gardaí must go up and down boreens in the middle of the night on their own. Some days, there are no gardaí available in Cahir or Cashel stations. These are tourist towns, never mind all the villages in the hinterland. It is just not acceptable and not fair to the garda members who are in the region doing their best.
“The lack of cover in Carrick-on-Suir would be laughable if it were not so serious. There are three gardaí in a town that used to have 18. Clonmel station is trying to cover this.
“We see what happens at peaceful protests, such as the one in Dundrum when the IPAS residents were being moved in. I was there myself and we saw what happened.
“We had the siege of Dundrum. Two hundred gardaí, from the riot squad and dog squad to the equine unit and God knows what, arrived. Consider the cost of this. At the same time, a house was burgled in Cullen, about 15 miles away, and no garda could be got. That is the norm. Therefore, there is overkill when it suits the Government. What is happening is not acceptable. It is not safe to have gardaí on their own covering the kind of area in question.”
Deputy McGrath criticised the Government’s failure to reach recruitment targets, citing frequent withdrawals from Templemore and low morale among serving members.
“It’s not just a recruitment crisis—it’s a retention crisis. Gardaí are leaving because they’re burned out, overworked, and unsupported,” he said. “You cannot run a national police force on political promises and empty PR.
“You need boots on the ground. We have now learned that of the 120 gardaí who graduated last week, one came to south Tipperary and one left the same day, so we are standing still. All of this is happening while gardaí are being trained in their hundreds in Templemore and going to the east coast or to Dublin. They need gardaí too but we cannot have them in Dublin at the expense of the rural areas.”
He also called on the Minister for Justice to urgently publish a county-by-county breakdown of current Garda strength, retirements, and planned recruitment efforts.
“The public deserves transparency. We need a clear picture of where resources are falling short and what’s being done to fix it,” McGrath added.
“The safety of our people should be non-negotiable. Until we fix this crisis, we’re failing the very communities we are elected to serve,” added Deputy McGrath.
Tipperary North TD, Alan Kelly said: “In contrast 74 gardaí that graduated were sent to stations in Dublin.
“This is quite a shocking statistic and Tipperary is not alone, Kerry also only got one new garda. What this shows is that this Government is clearly discriminating against rural areas.
“The Fianna Fáil Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan thinks it is acceptable that Tipperary only gets one new Garda even though we have had a number of retirements in the county over the last few months. The Minister made sure that his own city of Dublin got the overwhelmingly majority, approximately 62% of the Gardai allocated. This differential shows what Minister O’Callaghan and Fianna Fáil think of Tipperary and the county’s policing needs.”