Considerably less than 2,300 gardaí are available for non-administrative duties at any given time, it has emerged.
Labour justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, today revealed figures which show that of the 11,895 serving members of the force, around one-fifth (2,301) are available for duty at any one time.
"When the total number of personnel who are engaged in administrative, specialist or technical duties are taken out, it means that the number of Garda available for public policing duties is even much smaller than the 2,301 figure," Mr Costello said.
The Labour TD received the information in a written response to a parliamentary question to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr McDowell.
"This is a figure that will shock a public reeling from the impact of street disorder and violent crime and it highlights once again the betrayal of the electorate by Minister McDowell when he abandoned the government'spre-election promise to recruit an additional 2,000 Gardaí.
"This is simply quite inadequate to deal with scale of the crime problem we are now facing. There is general acknowledgment that a visible police presence is probably the most effective deterrent for street crime and violence," Mr Costello concluded.