TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said he will not be suggesting to the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris that there should be a move towards arming gardaí.
There has been a focus on crime on the streets of Dublin following the attack on an American tourist in the Talbot Street area last week.
Varadkar said yesterday that Ireland is relatively safe, while stating that it is the “wrong approach” to tell people that certain areas are unsafe to walk in.
He acknowledged that it will be difficult to meet the target of recruiting 1,000 new gardaí this year.
The Taoiseach said he is meeting with the Garda Commissioner and Justice Minister Helen McEntee next week to discuss measures to tackle crime.
However, he said arming gardaí will not be one of the measures under consideration.
“No, I won’t be suggesting it [arming all gardaí]. We do have the Emergency Response Unit which is armed, the Armed Response Unit in every division so there a lot more gardaí that are armed than was the case in the past and that is necessary,” he said.
Last year, Varadkar said that he would “absolutely” be in favour of arming gardaí if the Garda Commissioner requested it.
However, speaking to reporters yesterday, the Taoiseach said his conversations with the Garda Commissioner and also rank and file gardaí, is that they are not in favour of arming the force.
“One thing they’ve impressed on me since I gave those comments was that having an unarmed police force is something of real value and that if we were to arm all of our gardaí that would see an escalation in the extent to which people who commit crimes are armed.
“So I think having an unarmed police force makes sense and that’s the advice we’re getting very strongly from gardaí and that’s not to say that we don’t need to invest in the armed support units and ERU because we do,” he said.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has previously said that the next natural step for the gardaí would be to arm them with tasers, but the group has said fully arming gardaí would be a step too far.
Varadkar said yesterday that people are being “attacked all the time” on Irish streets and he acknowledged it will be “very hard” to meet the target of recruiting 1,000 gardaí this year.
Varadkar said that when the victim is from overseas, it “sometimes” gets more coverage than when it is an Irish person who was assaulted.
However, he added: “Sadly, there are Irish people resident in the country being attacked all the time on our streets – and that’s not something we can accept.”
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