Most Garda divisions now have fewer front-line officers than this time last year. That is a shocking headline currently throughout the country. In the 560 Garda stations that exist, the number has fallen from 12,045 gardaí to 11,928 gardaí. In County Waterford, the number of gardaí has fallen by 24. In counties Louth, Cavan and Monaghan, the number of gardaí has fallen by 48. In counties Roscommon and Longford, the number of gardaí has fallen by 22. In Meath, my own county and the county with the lowest number of gardaí per capita in the State, the number of gardaí in our division has fallen again. In actual, real terms, the Garda numbers have fallen below 2020 figures. They have actually fallen in real terms below 2009 figures. Believe it or not, per capita, we have a lower number of gardaí now than we had 20 years ago in 2005, which is an incredible situation. Under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Ireland now has its lowest number of gardaí in 20 years per capita. That is on the basis that Ireland also has the lowest number of gardaí per capita in the whole of the European Union. It is an incredible situation where police forces across Europe have far more police per capita than Ireland.

Rural Garda stations have been closed and that has done an enormous level of damage across the country. The refusal by the Government to staff those Garda stations is actually leaving those communities exposed to crime. It is a competitive advantage to criminals that the Taoiseach's party and Fine Gael have closed Garda stations around the country. In my own county, Ballivor, Longwood, Summerhill, Athboy and Oldcastle all have Garda stations that are hardly open at the moment. These are typical of many other towns throughout the country that have been abandoned by the Government to crime. These towns had functional Garda stations 100 years ago, when this State did not have a shilling to rub together and when crime was about a quarter of what it is now. Now, more gardaí are resigning, retiring and being attacked on a daily basis than ever before.

Drew Harris has lost the dressing room. There is a universal lack of confidence in Drew Harris among gardaí, and this is leading to a substantial increase in crime. Burglaries are increasing at a serious rate. Violent burglaries are increasing. A person's property is being broken into every 50 minutes in this country. Theft offences, kidnappings, firearms, explosives offences, public order offences, violent crime, attempted murders, assaults, shootings, drug importations and arson attacks are all increasing at the moment. This is the Taoiseach's Ireland at the moment.

Will the Government invest in real terms in Garda pay and conditions? Will it reopen the many Garda stations that have been closed? A total of 56 Garda stations do not even have an assigned garda. One would think that having a garda would be a key component to a Garda station, yet we do not have this. Will the Taoiseach reopen those Garda stations and make sure that they are properly staffed?

I pay tribute to An Garda Síochána and its members for the outstanding work they do in a much more complex society than in previous decades in protecting our citizens and working with our citizens every day of every week. They do exceptional work. Our overall Garda workforce is larger than it has ever been. I know the Deputy slipped in the per capita number. It is the highest it has ever been. During Covid, with the closure of Templemore and so on, there was a subsequent delay in recruitment to An Garda Síochána. The latest recruitment campaign was hugely successful in that it attracted approximately 6,700 applications. Our objective is to get as many gardaí on the street as we can. The Minister for Justice, Deputy O'Callaghan, is working with the Garda Commissioner on that. If we take the Garda workforce in its entirety-----

That is not gardaí.

-----it is at approximately 18,000 as we speak. The budget was increased by €500 million last year. That is a 27% increase in the Garda budget since 2020. On another day, Deputy Tóibín will come in speaking about value for money, wasteful Government expenditure and all of that. No one can question the fact that very substantial resources have been allocated, far above what would normally be the annual increase in Government expenditure. We need to be conscious of that as well, particularly as we enter potentially more economically turbulent times. The Garda budget this year is €2.48 billion, which is a huge sum. We have increased the Garda training allowance to €354 per week. The age of entry has increased from 35 to 50. The mandatory retirement age has gone to 62. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has continued his substantial discussions with the Commissioner about how we can further improve recruitment. The current capacity in Templemore is approximately 800 a year. The target is 5,000 over the next five years. We will have to increase training capacity to achieve that target and we are committed to doing that.

A new group was established to achieve that and to make sure we can reach those figures. It has been formed and is finalising its report, which is expected in mid-2025, which will recommend a series of actions to take to enable us to get the increase of 5,000 that we require. All effort is being made to increase recruitment.

Regarding deployment, the Deputy may be aware of the report today on public order policing. There is a substantial increase and expansion of capacity in that area, which is to be welcomed. There is much better resourcing of An Garda Síochána in that sphere over the past year or so. I am hopeful and have a better, more positive disposition than the Deputy has, obviously, about the future of An Garda Síochána and our capacity as a State to provide resources.

The Taoiseach has a more positive disposition than anybody living in those towns without a Garda station, in reality. The Garda Inspectorate report on public order policing that he mentioned was published seven years ago. I have asked numerous Ministers for Justice if the recommendations of that report have been implemented. Three months after I asked the former Minister for Justice, Deputy Helen McEntee if they had been implemented, I got an answer to a parliamentary question, which stated that she did not know the answer to that and would give the answer when she could. I asked the same question of the new Minister for Justice, who came back to me in the past month. He said, seven years after they were published, that the Department is considering the recommendations. It is an incredible situation. If those recommendations had been implemented, we could have mitigated against the worst damage of the Dublin riots and their massive costs, not just in the financial cost to the taxpayer but the massive cost to our international reputation and the damage done.

We do not have a specific public order unit.

Deputy Tóibín, please conclude your question.

Gardaí are taken out of Garda stations and put into a public order unit for a period.

Deputy Tóibín, resume your seat please.

When will the Government implement the recommendations of the Garda Inspectorate report in full?

There was a Garda Inspectorate report in respect of domestic abuse published earlier today. The Deputy has a habit of going back-----

I am talking about the 2019 Garda Inspectorate report that the Taoiseach mentioned.

I mentioned a public order report. The Minister today updated the Cabinet on the progress we have made in terms of public order units, public order resources and a suite of improvements that have happened.

They have not been implemented.

They have.

No.

Order, please, Deputy Tóibín.

I will ask the Minister to brief the Deputy after the session on the progress that has been made.

He has briefed me in response to a parliamentary question.

It has been significant, and so it should be.

You are mistaken.

The Deputy mentioned the Dublin riots. Again, we should always be conscious that we are not alone in this. I and four of my Ministers met with the British Prime Minister the week before last at the annual summit. Events that are happening now are triggered by how certain people behave, outside the House, obviously, in terms of provocateurs or whatever. I refer to people who are determined to exploit certain situations in order to create riots, a very negative and violent reaction and so forth.

Will you implement it?

The Taoiseach's time has concluded.

The exact same thing happened in the United Kingdom, with, as the Deputy knows, a devastating impact on particular towns. We have to be very vigilant about that and we have to protect gardaí. One of the most important things that we are keen on doing is accessing legislation in terms of facial recognition and the use of modern technological techniques and capacity, which some of the House, of course, opposes. If we had that capacity, I think we would improve our responses to events like the Dublin rioting to make sure that people are prosecuted faster and held to account much faster than they were, perhaps, prior to this.