Violence against gardai on the streets of Dublin city centre is "quite bad" but guns are not the answer, a Dublin MEP has said.
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar previously said he would support a call from the Garda Commissioner to arm rank-and-file garda members. Six gardai have been attacked on the streets of Dublin in the last month.
The Dublin MEP told Dublin Live "community guards" should become a "senior" role which members should consider a career goal. Mr Andrews suggested at the moment community policing is an "entry-level" position which members "tolerate" before they move to more "exciting" roles.
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He said: "I have always held the view that the community guard is undervalued in the Garda Siochana. The career path in the Garda Siochana is towards the detectives and the blue lights and all the excitement of it.
"Whereas the real work, particularly in the centre of Dublin, is around community gardai. If it was a career path to stay in community policing, up to a very senior level, then you would get that longevity of service.
"But at the moment it is like an entry-level part of the gardai - something you have to endure and tolerate and then you move into the more exciting parts." He added that resources had to be looked at as well.
The Fianna Fail representative said that the gardai are under "awful" pressure. He said: "At the moment, it is quite bad. They're under an awful lot of pressure. But I think that structure, for me, is one of the crucial parts of it".
However, he said arming rank-and-file members was not the answer. He said: "I didn't ever believe in arming the gardai... It is shocking to a lot of people outside of Ireland that our gardai aren't armed because it is such an everyday thing to see here in the continent of Europe - heavily armed people.
"And that [rank-and-file gardai being unarmed] doesn't equate to a higher level of crime. We are very, very fortunate and we should protect that."
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