Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis calls on the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner to allocate extra Gardaí to help tackle crime in the Finglas area.

Deputy Ellis said:

“The population in the Dublin North West constituency has increased since the last census but the number of Gardaí has decreased. This defies all logic. This decline of Gardaí in relation to the rise in population is very worrying.

“In 2011 Finglas station had 120 Gardaí while in June 2016 there were 103 serving Gardaí. There has been a number of serious anti-social incidents over the summer and a number of assaults and thefts, which seem to be higher than usual. This could be a direct result of a lower Garda presence in Finglas Station than there was five years ago.

Ellis continued;

“Not only that, but the community Garda numbers are down as well from 2011 in Finglas by five community Gardaí. In Santry this has dropped by two and Ballymun has seen a fall of seven. Community Gardaí  play a pivotal role in helping communities deal with issues and the cut in their number also effects the amount of crime in the community.

“The Dublin North West area is a great place to live and has a great community spirt, but lesser number of Gardaí will not help a community to thrive and it’s Minister Fitzgerald’s responsibility to provide basic staffing levels of Gardaí which allow them to do their jobs properly.“

Sinn Féin junior spokesperson on Housing, Dessie Ellis TD, has said that the government must take immediate action to address the worsening housing and homelessness crisis.

Figures recently published by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government show a record high of 6,525 people now in emergency accommodation.

Speaking today Deputy Ellis said:

“These figures are further evidence that the housing and homelessness crisis is getting steadily worse. The number of people in emergency accommodation has increased by 40% since last year.

“Worse still, there are now 2,348 children in emergency accommodation and 1,130 families. This is year-on-year increase of 70 and 72% respectively.

“These are damning figures. While the government’s Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness contains initiatives to provide supports for families with children in emergency accommodation, how these supports will be funded is not clear.

“Though the plan was launched with much fanfare in July, it needs to be implemented with immediate effect as the crisis continues to spiral out of control with every passing month. Our most vulnerable citizens deserve to have their right to housing met.”