Sligo Leitrim has more gardai proportionally than the greater Dublin area

New figures released this week are claiming that the Sligo-Leitrim region has proportionally more than twice the number of Gardai compared to the greater Dublin area.

The figures are claiming that the Sligo Leitrim Division has 31 Gardai for every 10,000 of a population.
The national average stands at 26.3 with Meath having just 17 Gardai per 10,000 and Kildare with 18 Gardai per 10,000.

Gardai have said numbers are not assigned by population alone and there are a number of factors taken into consideration.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has expressed concern about the challenge faced by gardaí in patrolling border areas in the context of attacks on executives of Quinn Industrial Holdings due to a lack of resources.

It has also said the allocation of more vehicles to specialist units such as armed support and the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation had come “at the expense of frontline, community-based policing."

There are 36 Garda cars, 13 Garda vans and two motorcycles assigned to the Sligo Leitrim area.

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