Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said he would support rank and file gardai being armed with guns.
The soon to be Taoiseach told the Irish Mail on Sunday he would not "block" any request from the Garda Commissioner to arm gardai. It follows a number of high profile incidents were gardai were injured.
Two gardai were hospitalised after an incident in Ballyfermot recently and Dublin Live previously reported on a separate incident where a female garda suffered a fractured arm and finger in the city centre. A Dublin TD has also recently said garda recruitment is in "crisis".
The Fine Gael leader said: "That's very much a decision for the Garda Commissioner rather than for a politician. But certainly if the Garda Commissioner came to me or came the Minister of Justice and said, 'We think that we need guards to be armed, or that we need more guards to be armed', well, then I would, absolutely, say yes.
"But that should be a call for the commissioner and his team rather than politicians. But I certainly wouldn't do anything to block that if he felt that was the right approach."
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