Just 34 traffic Gardaí in Louth -Cavan- Monaghan Division

With just 34 Gardaí assigned to roads policing across Louth-Cavan-Monaghan Division, Fianna Fail MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú has warned that Ireland’s depleted traffic units are putting communities, including Louth, at serious risk on the roads.

The MEP says that Ireland is at risk of falling behind EU road safety standards due to insufficient enforcement capacity and a lack of Gardaí in our road policing units across the country.

Nationally, there were 1,046 Gardaí working in roads policing in 2009. Recent figures supplied to Ní Mhurchú, by Gardaí under freedom of information, show that in March 2026, that number had fallen to 649 Gardaí. That is despite a significant increase in the population in Ireland in the intervening years.

Although Garda traffic cop numbers have risen slightly over the past 2 years, Ní Mhurchú says that the spike in road deaths this year means 2026 could surpass recent road fatality levels unless urgent action is taken.

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Ní Mhurchú is calling for a package of urgent, practical measures to improve road safety, including a significant expansion of average speed and static speed cameras, alongside the introduction of new technology to automatically detect mobile phone use and seatbelt offences. She is also calling for tougher penalties.