Galway is in dire need of an injection of new Garda recruits following the revelation this week that only a skeleton police service is being provided in different parts of the county.
Fianna Fáil TD Anne Rabbitte said that she had reliably learned that at times over recent weeks in the Loughrea Garda District, there was only one Garda to service 10,000 people.
“This is the on-the-ground reality of what the cutbacks of the past five years have meant in terms of Garda resources to districts like Loughrea.
“Over 50 of this year’s new Garda recruits went to Ballymun in Dublin while in Galway over the past five years, the number of new recruits has been as low as four or five,” said Deputy Rabbitte.
She said that the situation had been particularly disturbing as regards the Loughrea district where at different times over recent weeks there were just four Gardai and two patrol cars to service a huge area.
The East Galway TD said the end result of this depletion of resources was that in the Loughrea district at different periods over recent weeks – with holidays and sick leave coming into play – there was only one Garda to service 10,000 head of population.
“In the case of a district like Loughrea, that Garda number at any one time should never dip below eight, but with any hardly any recruits coming our way, while others retire or are transferred, the numbers are just going down and down.
“It is my understanding that over the coming months, there will be a new bunch of recruits passing out in Templemore but it is an absolute imperative that Galway gets its required allocation from that class,” said Deputy Rabbitte.
She said that it had also come to her attention that Garda numbers were also below the required levels at both Salthill and Galway city districts, an issue that could also be addressed in the next distribution of recruits from Templemore.
“While I can understand the need for resources to be allocated to the Dublin area due to the ongoing gangland and drugs related problems, this should not be achieved at the expense of the regions.
“We are also in a situation where access to Galway and the West has never been as easy with the new motorways network – we need more Gardai on the beat and in cars across the county,” said Deputy Rabbitte.
Gardai declined to make any comment on the personnel issue on the basis that it was an operational issue but the Connacht Tribune has learned that there is ‘considerable unease’ in Garda management over the resources issue in the West.
Earlier this Summer, the Connacht Tribune revealed that a network of Garda stations across rural Galway did not have patrol cars available to them to carry out their day-to-day duties.
Sixteen in-service Garda sub-district stations, dotted across the county, did not have patrol cars available to them in early July of this year.
At the July meeting of the Co. Galway Garda Joint Policing Committee (JPC) meeting, Chief Supt. Tom Curley told members that he was doing everything possible to get more patrol cars for the rural stations.
He also stated that he was pressing for the replacement of Gardai who had either left the county due to promotions or had retired over recent years.
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