Our towns and cities have never been as unsafe as they are today. There are fewer Gardai on the streets than there were when FG first came to power, despite a huge increase in population during the same period.
The current Justice Minister and Garda Commissioner have failed to increase numbers and provide adequate training and equipment and this has led to utter demoralisation amongst Gardai. Our open borders policy, which this government is actively defending, means criminals are allowed to come here and live off the taxpayer while committing crimes with no real risk of being deported. This is unacceptable.
Gangs of youths have been empowered to cause havoc on the streets of Dublin because there are never any consequences to their actions. Our courts are handing down suspended sentences for despicable crimes such as circulating child abuse content.
We have a lot of respect for the work the Gardai do. We will help restore their morale by listening to their concerns and giving them the resources they need to do their job safely and effectively.
We need to encourage more people to join the Gardai and make it an attractive place to work. We will invest in youth support in inner city areas to tackle growing disillusionment, boredom and lack of purpose amongst young adults.
We will increase community policing to break down barriers and increase trust among the people and the citizens. We will take career criminals off the streets with harsher and longer sentencing. We will ensure jail capacity does not result in releasing prisoners early by building a new jail if required.
We will invest massively in our border control to stop criminals coming here and we will investigate all recent arrivals to ensure those with a criminal history are immediately deported. We will push for a stronger police presence in our towns and cities to ensure our people feel safe to walk the streets any time of day or night in every part of the country.