I want to highlight the serious and alarming low levels of Garda availability across County Tipperary. There are supposed to be 380 gardaí to cover the county. Unfortunately, 45 of them are out on long-term sick leave. I wish them well as many them have injuries from the line of duty. I also raise this issue in the context of the proposed divisional reorganisation, a move that will see Tipperary lose its divisional headquarters after it is transferred to Ennis, County Clare. This was a decision taken without any consultation with the Garda Representative Association, GRA, or anyone else.

As an example of just how serious the situation is, I want to alert the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice and Equality to the following example that took place over the course of one week in Carrick-on-Suir. The town has a population of 7,000 people. I have the Garda roster here thanks to the local gardaí because they are so frustrated. On the Wednesday of the week in question, there were just two gardaí due to work in Carrick-on-Suir. One garda had to go to Clonmel to drive a patrol car, leaving one garda for the entire town of Carrick-on-Suir from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. This also affected neighbouring towns such as Fethard, Kilsheelan, Kilcash, Ahenny and Faugheen. Thursday was court day, meaning no gardaí were available. On Friday, there were two gardaí due to work in Carrick-on-Suir. Both of them were directed to Clonmel to take a prisoner from there to a court in County Cork. Astonishingly, this left Carrick-on-Suir with no Garda presence whatsoever for the entire Friday of that week. I remind the Taoiseach that this is a town of 7,000 people. They are law-abiding, decent people who pay their taxes, work hard and deserve to be supported. On Saturday, there was only one garda on duty because the other garda was on leave. The on-duty garda was directed to Clonmel to perform a checkpoint, leaving Carrick-on-Suir without any garda.

I salute Sergeant Mick Hubbard and his Garda colleagues in Carrick-on-Suir, who give an excellent service. However, they are dragged away from it and do not have enough numbers. The Taoiseach will agree that this is an intolerable situation for the people of Carrick-on-Suir and ordinary rank-and-file gardaí. Can the Taoiseach imagine how ordinary gardaí - men and women - feel having to leave their town and areas completely unpatrolled? It is shocking.

Fr. Paul Waldron and community activists held two meetings last year because of the whole issue pertaining to mental health, suicide and the proliferation of drugs in the town. We got tokenism from senior gardaí when they met us then, promising the sun, moon and the stars. It has diminished significantly since then. As a public representative, I call on the Taoiseach, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, and his officials to rectify this immediately. We need at least 45 new gardaí in Clonmel to augment it. In Roscrea last week, there was a brawl on the street. The day after, no garda was available to open the Garda station there. An officer had to come from the court in Nenagh to open it. It is shocking. The Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel Garda districts are starved of equipment, patrol cars and personnel.

This new reconfiguration without consultation will not work. It will in fact lessen impact. I am told by the GRA that bureaucracy increased with the pilot project for these reconfigurations and did not result in more gardaí on the beat. The Government must increase Garda strength and give gardaí the tools of the trade to do their job. Gardaí must be shown the respect they deserve. They want to serve their people but they are being handcuffed, blindfolded and restricted. They are also being taken out of Carrick-on-Suir, which is appalling.

The Government’s policy is to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Part of being tough on crime is providing more resources for gardaí as well as ensuring the Garda Síochána is reformed in order that those resources turn into actual gardaí on the street and on the ground for people to see them. This is what all the reforms are about. It is about having fewer chiefs but more gardaí - more policemen and policewomen - on the streets. It is about fewer policemen in offices and more gardaí out and about where people expect to see them. The Government is 100% behind the Garda Commissioner in driving those reforms and providing him with the additional resources he needs to ensure this happens.

In the past three years, the number of gardaí in Tipperary has increased from 354 to 385 while the number of civilian staff has increased from 32 to 66. This will continue as resources allow. The total Garda force nationwide is 14,200, supported by 2,700 Garda civilian staff. This means that the force is at its highest ever level with its highest ever budget, €1.88 billion, next year. Since I became Taoiseach, 1,000 gardaí have been recruited and up to 700 more will be recruited next year.

A large part of the reform is civilianisation, ensuring work that can be done by civilians is done by them, allowing gardaí to be freed up for front-line policing duties, which is what we want them to do. There has been a redeployment of 500 experienced gardaí to front-line services, with 250 redeployed in 2018. This means that the process of civilianisation has already delivered 750 more gardaí. Those who were in offices and administrative roles are now back on the front line where we want to see them.

The location of Garda district headquarters is an operational matter for the Garda Commissioner to decide. When the Commissioner was appointed, we gave him the assurance that he would be properly resourced and that he would be given the freedom to reform the Garda as he saw fit. I am glad he is doing that. There are other examples of divisions where two counties have been put together. It works well. The location of the headquarters should not be a significant issue. It is different from an ambulance base or an emergency department. It is an administrative location and the Garda Commissioner decides where it makes sense to locate those.

I will give the Taoiseach the roster I was given. It has the facts and is from a member of the Garda Síochána who is afraid for his community and the people he wants to police.

I am astonished with the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, because he has not engaged with the GRA or anybody else. The GRA stated the Government’s policing reform plan looks like it has been built on quicksand following the budget allocation of €81 million. It will go nowhere near what it needs this year with additional costs and recruitment.

Recruitment is picking up. The Taoiseach did not listen to me, however. I said there are 383 gardaí in County Tipperary but 45 of them are out on long-term sick leave. Those are the true figures. We are setting up two new units that the former Chief Superintendent Kehoe should have set up but she did not. One of them relates to sexual crime. It will be populated with ten members of An Garda Síochána and two sergeants from the already existing numbers, plus another unit that the Commissioner is rolling out as well. This cannot be done. Without the basic numbers on the ground. Any police force cannot work without the support of its people. The people are willing, ready and able. Neighbourhood Watch, the clergy and community groups will support the Garda.

However, they must be able to see gardaí. Officers must be able to stand in their kitchens and meet them. The principals in the schools, such as Mr. Kevin Langton in Carrick-on-Suir, do a great job. There is the musical society. We have a proud record of culture and heritage, but it is being adversely affected by the position regarding Garda numbers and the drugs epidemic. As an extension, crime and mental health issues are proliferating and there are no services available. We do not have one long-stay bed available. Gardaí need to be stationed in Carrick-on-Suir and other towns and villages. We do not need all flowery reports on what the Government is doing, what it will do and what it will not do. It is as though dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi go raibh gardaí i dTiobraid Árann. Níl siad ann - they are not there. Will the Taoiseach listen?

We are doing exactly what Deputy Mattie McGrath suggests. We are making sure that there are more gardaí on the beat on our streets. That is why 700 more gardaí will be recruited in 2020. It is why civilianisation is happening. The process of civilianisation means that gardaí are being taken out of office and administration jobs and are being put back on the front line. Restructuring is happening-----

It is not happening.

-----in order to ensure that there are fewer chiefs, fewer gardaí in offices and more sergeants and inspectors on the ground in communities, less bureaucracy and duplication at Garda senior level and more decisions being made at local level.

There are none so blind as those who cannot see. The Taoiseach is not listening.

That is why I ask the Deputy to get behind these reforms, which are exactly what will deliver what he wants, namely, more gardaí on the streets. That is where we want to see them.

We are not getting them.