Strong calls for additional Gardaí: Longford TD says 'few more Gardaí being sought'

County Longford received just one additional garda from the newly attested batch of 154 recruits recently -the first new recruit since March - and a local councillor has insisted more Gardaí are needed.

The new members of the force graduated on Friday, August 22 at the Garda College in Templemore in county Tipperary.
The garda that has been sent to Longford is based in the county town.

Last June, Longford did not receive any recruits from the graduating class, meaning that the county has benefitted from just one recruit from two classes.

An additional garda was also sent to Longford town last March, however, the numbers of new garda recruits has fallen compared to last year when two new recruits were deployed to Longford on two separate occasions in April and July 2024.

Elsewhere in the Mayo-Roscommon-Longford District Mayo received three newly attested officers, however, not a single Garda was deployed to county Roscommon.

An additional garda was also sent to Longford town last March, however, the numbers of new garda recruits has fallen compared to last year when two new recruits were deployed to Longford on two separate occasions in April and July 2024.

The North-West region, which includes county Longford, once again received the lowest number of new officers with a total of 21.

The Southern Region received the highest number, at 66 and 45 newly attested Gardaí were sent to the Dublin Region, while the Eastern Region has benefitted from a further 22 newly attested Gardaí.

Fine Gael Councillor Niall Gannon, who last June called for An Garda Síochána to address the increasing presence of groups of youngsters who were 'intimidating' local business owners, residents, and visitors in the town centre.

"It's not good enough. We definitely need more Gardaí allocated to the Longford region, it's as simple as that."

Cllr Gannon previously insisted more outlets should be made available to young people to assist them and he referred to 'potential measures such as increasing Gardaí presence in the town during peak hours, implementing and engaging more with community outreach programmes aimed at engaging youth in positive activities and collaborating with local schools and organisations to address the underlying causes of such behaviour.
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Longford Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy believes it is important to compliment the existing force.

"We welcome the fact that an additional garda has been transferred into the district."

Deputy Carrigy said he is aware a few more Gardaí are being sought in the county.

"I know we are looking for a couple more and we are looking for additional resources."

Deputy Carrigy said he understood the numbers were up at "nearly a full compliment" based on the number for the Longford and Granard Garda districts and he praised the work being done.

"Both in the Longford and Granard areas they have been extremely proactive in dealing with any criminal offences.

"We have had a number of successful drug raids over the past number of months, and I look forward to that continuing."

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