I am immensely proud to represent the constituency of Tipperary South, a constituency blessed with extraordinary strengths, great history, strong employment, great outdoors, an outstanding tourism offering, wonderful retail and hospitality businesses, and above all extraordinary community spirit. Of course, like every constituency we have our challenges. We continue to tackle vacancy and dereliction. We continue to fight for investment particularly in our water and wastewater infrastructure. However, today I want to raise what many constituents tell me is their greatest concern, the growing feeling that law and order is slipping away. Across many of our key towns, including Clonmel, Tipperary, Carrick, Cahir, Fethard and Cashel, people are telling me they no longer feel safe. Businesses are witnessing open drug dealing in prime retail areas, families are increasingly concerned about antisocial behaviour and criminal gangs operate with increased confidence. At the same time, Garda visibility has reduced dramatically. Response times are far too long and in some instances people struggle to even make contact with their local Garda station. One constituent recently attempted to contact Clonmel Garda station more than 20 times during a serious incident without receiving an answer. Increasingly, people believe the only way of getting assistance is by dialling 999. I want to be absolutely clear: this is not a criticism of the men and women of An Garda Síochána serving on the ground in my constituency. Every interaction I have with them tells me they are working tirelessly, but under enormous pressure. The problem is numbers. The programme for Government rightly speaks about balanced regional development, yet when it comes to Garda resources, there is nothing balanced about the current approach. This year, 356 recruits graduated from Templemore over two intakes, and just two came to the entire county of Tipperary. By comparison, 245, or more than 70%, went to the Dublin metropolitan region. When retirements and transfers are taken into account, Tipperary has effectively experienced a net loss. Since the division restructuring was introduced in 2020, Garda numbers across the Tipperary-Clare division have fallen from 725 to 660. Having the chief superintendent based in Ennis is simply not delivering for the communities I represent. Will the Government commit to urgently reviewing Garda allocations for counties like Tipperary? Does the Minister support the review of the Clare-Tipperary divisional structure to ensure policing resources genuinely reflect the need of our communities?

Sentiment score: 0.12

This is about fairness. Just two gardaí have been allocated to Tipperary this year, with 245 going to the Dublin metropolitan region. Criminal gangs are operating with increased confidence in my constituency. Our gardaí on the ground in south Tipperary deserve reinforcement. Our communities deserve reassurance and our businesses deserve to operate without open criminality undermining our town centres. The reputation of south Tipperary is only as strong as the people's sense of safety. Once that begins to disappear, everything else is put at risk. Will the Minister commit to organising a meeting for all Oireachtas Members in south Tipperary - I note Deputy Healy is in the room, as well as Deputy McGrath - in order to review the allocation model, particularly as it applies to south Tipperary, and more importantly, to explore a review of the Clare-Tipperary divisional structure, which is not serving the people I represent?

Sentiment score: 0.22