Shortfall in Garda Roads Policing due to recruitment not funding, Transport Minister says

David Raleigh

The Minister for Transport has said that a shortfall of 127 gardaí in Roads Policing Units (RPUs) nationally was due to recruitment and not funding.

However, despite only 23 out of 150 additional gardaí being recruited to RPUs, Minister Darragh O’Brien said on Friday that he expected the Garda Commissioner to reach his target to recruit the additional 127 gardaí by the end of this year.

Commissioner Drew Harris set a target of 75 additional gardaí to roads policing units last year, however, only 23 were recruited. A target of an additional 75 gardaí was set this year.

A study undertaken by the road safety campaign group Parc found that 22 garda divisions lost RPU personnel between 2021 and 2024.

Nationally, since 2009, there has been a decline of 40 per cent in RPU members, apart from only the Limerick Garda Division having the same number of RPU gardaí as it had fifteen years ago.

Last year, although there was a decrease of seven in the number of people killed on the roads, it remained a sobering year for road fatalities, with 174 people killed, compared to 181 deaths in 2023.

Speaking to reporters in Adare, Co Limerick, Minister Darragh O’Brien said that “funding isn’t the issue” in respect of the current shortfall in RPU gardaí.

“The assignment of members of An Garda Síochána to any unit, in this instance, the roads unit, is a matter for the Garda Commissioner; the government don't control that,” Minister O’Brien said.

Minister O’Brien said resourcing Roads Policing was “critically important, to ensure that enforcement is there, and that our roads are as safe as possible, and that requires investment in the infrastructure, but it does require, as well, the human resources".

“I am assured by what the Commissioner has said that the quantum of 150 gardaí in the units will be attained by the end of this year, and I expect that to be the case," he said.