What about crime that isn’t reported or the changing of incidents to lesser ones.

I find it strange that this report comes out after a former Garda released his story in the press.

You know what show was great? The Wire. I remember they had this plot line were crime figures were reduced by management recategorising criminal incidents into lesser incidents. That was a good storyline.

No doubt that mr shatter is picking and choosing figures that suit him and not the overall picture – typical barrister ! !

And what about all the patrol cars being taken off the road …. And not replaced! That shatter hasn’t a clue

One crime a day/week. How many crimes would there be if there were no Garda stations in towns/ villages.

Improvements in transport? Hasn’t he taken squad and detective cars off the run? They’ll be responding in their on cars soon enough and getting fuel vouchers

Would have thought justice Minister would be proud of 1 crime a day stat. if he didn’t close stations it would remain like that, despite the Lies, Damned Lies and statistics.

Improvements in transport? Hasn’t he taken squad and detective cars off the run? They’ll be responding in their on cars soon enough and getting fuel vouchers

A huge proportion of the work of rural and local garda stations is administration etc … Why isn’t anyone calling for the integration of services in rural areas like merging Post Offices, Garda Stations, Town Halls and Town Council offices .. Have multipurpose buildings .. The cost savings would be obvious and services could be retained. Any time I have been in a Garda station I’d say about 90% of people going in we’re getting driver license forms, passport forms and the likes signed. Why do we need guards to do this ? Have civil administrators tied in to post offices doing these duties .. Sure court clerks do important legal functions without having to be members of the force or judiciary

I would suggest the crime figures are low, because of the presence of the Gardai. The majority in Ireland are law-abiding anyway, and the few career criminals are curtailed in their activities by a strong Garda presence. Closing stations and cutting back on Police numbers would only increase the crime figures, giving the thugs a free hand in certain areas.

As usual, when a politician gets a bee in their bonnet, things are always made worse by their actions.

You must have been a bold boy at one stage

a lot of cars being stolen lately …whats the story on that ..and im sure the Gardai know who and whos not involved …

Reopening Templemore and funding it by cutting say the number of peacekeeps were sending abroad with the army might be a good start. Like it our not we need more gardai to be trained and ready to take over from the ones retiring in a few years, its a joke that more army places are up for grabs so we can go play heroes in some country no other nation is willing to send troops to, but when it comes to the protection and safety of the citizens of the country the likes of shatter wants to close stations, take cars off the road and not replace them etc. These figures no more than figures for household charge and how much a TD earns is all nicely made to look good so I wouldn’t go believing much from them!

1. The reason why having so many Garda stations is a bad idea is because they tie up manpower that should be on the road fighting crime.

2. These figures cannot be taken seriously as an account of crime known to the Garda. There are supposedly 7 public order offences in Pearse St area per day. There are at least 40 shifts of Gardai per day in this area. They are fairly busy. It is unthinkable that there are such a low number.

I live in a town where the population is 30,000+ (as the Garda I was speaking with informed me).
We have ONE patrol car.
I’ve been being harassed in my own home by the neighbours boyfriend, he’s made death threats, arson threats, hes assaulted me, he’s talking about getting guns and lighting fires in the backyard..

On average, waiting time from 999 is 2 hours on a weekday (and that’s with calling back to let them know we’re still waiting), 3 on a weeknight, if it’s busy, they don’t come at all.

It’s not the fault of the guys on patrol, the majority of Gards we have dealt with through this have been great (not all, but most). It’s just sheer madness that 1 patrol car is supposed to serve the whole town..

Why is it acceptable to have one or two pockets of the country where there are thousands of crimes being committed every year, while at the same time we have Gardai manning hundreds of stations all over the country where there is almost no crime? …..well those Gardai are preventing crime in those small towns…..but surly if you look at the stats and try and allocate resources to the area that are most in need of resources to prevent crime then I would be flooding Gardai into central Dublin. I would go for the New York style of having one standing on every other corner.

That’s not good for sure ,probably not popular opinion but it does seem to me that whenever any kind of reforms or modernising is talked of there’s the usual calling for not changing anything , don’t close anything, keep all the the stations like it always was, the Garda themselves have to try make the best of thoroughly outdated crap processes that needs to be comprehensively updated , more civilians doing desk jobs makes sense and plenty more modernising required. I still dont see how having Garda on horses going around the Phoenix park is a sensible use of money either.

Why does anybody think it right that we have nearly 8 times as many Garda stations per capita as the UK but approximately the same number of police officers per capita.

Erm , yes correct the mounted unit is what it’s called , I don’t see how that is making the best use of spending money was my point

If as a result of closing stations puts more Gardai on the streets instead of sitting in stations drinking tea its a good thing.

It’s clear that money has to be saved within the Garda!? So if their members are that worried about declining numbers, why don’t they volunteer to take pay cuts that would enable more Garda to retain positions? I mean it’s not as if they’re on the breadline is it? A Guard living a few doors up from me had three kids, his wife doesn’t go to work and he just bought a brand new 5 series. So I’d say they can well afford to take some cuts!!