I raise with the Taoiseach the lack of gardaí in rural areas right across my constituency of Meath West. We have ten Garda stations located in Navan, Trim, Athboy, Enfield, Ballivor, Longwood, Oldcastle, Summerhill, Castlepollard and Delvin. Of those, only two are manned on a full-time basis. In 2013, the Fine Gael Government closed 95 Garda stations in rural Ireland. Those that were left are manned on a part-time basis. Antisocial behaviour, robberies and openly visible drug dealing on our streets are happening every day. The people I represent figure that the Garda Síochána has given up on small-time drug dealing because it does not have the resources to devote to combating the problem. It is disheartening to hear from gardaí based in rural stations that new recruits are being disproportionately assigned to larger towns, which means that rural Ireland is being neglected and forgotten. What is the Government going to do about this matter?

Unfortunately, as Deputies will be aware, we have a shortage of gardaí all over the country. I was in Blanchardstown Garda station in my constituency in recent days. Blanchardstown station is located in the very big Dublin metropolitan region, DMR, west district, which has approximately 50 or 60 fewer gardaí than it had when Garda numbers peaked in 2020. Those numbers fell off when Templemore was closed during the pandemic. We would have 1,000 more gardaí today if that had not been the case. We are recruiting again and we will see Garda numbers increase, which is encouraging. Civilian Garda staff are being brought in to free up gardaí to carry out more front-line duties. New technology is also being brought in also to facilitate the more efficient use of Garda.