The problem is Martin, your idea makes sense and will therefore never be implemented.

Eh they’re cutting stations not guards….

hmmmm shutting down garda station does mean less gardai available in some areas means less security right????? thanks :-P

It means a longer response time. I’m not sure how much of an impact that’ll have any considering that they usually only get to a scene “after the fact” anyway. Can’t see that it’ll make much of a difference in terms of security.

yes gavin they are. there has been close to a thousand guards retiring in the last year and theyre not replacing them.

Longer response times due to gardai having to travel from further away effectively leaves areas as criminal safe havens.

Response times….did u ever call the guards and tell them u have a burglar in the house, on the premises…..you’ll see no sign of them for at least an hour however, if u call from the shop to say theres some deli stuff left over at the end of the day, they’ll be there in 10 mins. Same distance to cover!! True story.

@RP – Yep, I did. They were here in about 5 minutes, and got the guys, so you can’t generalise about that. Might be a different story if the station they came from closed though.

Put it this way, would 703 doctor’s surgeries seem like too many?

In what way does it leave areas as safe havens? All it means is that they may be slower to respond, not that they will outright ignore areas. As for the comparison with doctors surgeries, apples and oranges.

Apples and Oranges is it SeanS? Well we have 1,400 petrol stations in this country and I don’t hear people suggesting this is a ludicrous number to service a country the width and breath of Ireland yet according to Mr Shatter 700 is an implausible number of Garda stations. This was not considered an implausible number for previous generations who built these stations, feeling they were a necessary measure at time when Ireland had less money, less of a population and even less of a crime problem.

Response times are not the issue. A local presence can be a deterrence to anti-social and criminal activity in rural areas. It’s too late once you’re talking about response times. Response suggests something already happened. If the nearest Garda station is 10 miles away and the Gardai are busy dealing with goings on in the local town, the surrounding rural area is left to its own devices…

So now the comparison is between private firms and public services? The difference between the two is that one is privately funded, and the other isn’t, so of course, if some person or company wants to spend their own cash on petrol stations or otherwise, then people will tend not to complain about it.

The logic is that today, in comparison to when the barracks were first built, transport and communications are much better meaning that the overall coverage of a single barracks is much more extensive than it might have been even 20 years ago.

Any issues of rising crime rates are more to do with Gardai numbers than that of barracks, which is a different issue.

I’m not saying that this is right or that’s wrong, I’m just giving the logic behind the decision, and in fairness, it’s not as completely unreasonable as some people on here seem to be suggesting. Personally, although I realise it will have some sort of impact, I can’t imagine that it’ll have impact that some of the sensationalist posts on here might have use believe.

Petrol stations have deli counters. Put the Garda stations there. Problem solved…

SeanS. Would you say that those behaving anti-socially or criminally will be looking at this logically? If like you they are, maybe they’re thinking “no Gardai for miles around”. Community policing is surely part of the role in rural and urban areas. That requires a physical presence…

The town I live in has a population of 10,000. The garda station closed this week. Now the gardai have to come from the next largest town which has its own demands on an already understaffed service. Now any scumbag who wants to cause a bit of trouble can go ahead safe in the knowledge that they will be long gone by the time the gardai arrive….now what would you call that? Its a safe haven to commit crime.

@Michael Cuthbert I thought about what you said about putting gardai in local petrol stations, initially I thought this was a good idea but having thought about I changed my mind. All garda stations need detention areas, cells if you like, they also need interview rooms and secure areas for files etc While I’m sure all this can be provided to some degree and a small building built in some petrol stations, if space is available, this would be expensive and time consuming. If we were to go down this road surely it would be easier, cheaper and quicker to just reopen the existing garda stations?
If we reach a stage where we send a carrier pigeon to call the gardai or send them a letter in rural areas and the response time is measured in days then we have to concede its a field day for the bad guys and closing garda stations is NOT the thing to be doing in these circumstances. We need to find other , maybe creative, solutions to the obvious problems we have.

Very good Brian. hank you for your careful consideration. My neighbours have a pigeon loft. Maybe the Gards could move in there. The chipper’s just down the road an’ all. Think we’re getting somewhere…

@Michael Cuthbert Now the pigeon loft idea has a few things going for it, lets be honest if its big enough and has enough room with ample parking (not that our feathered friends would need it) this could work. Lets face it a couple of hours in there with all that cooing up to their neck in pigeon crap and most bad guys would crack. Plus I’m sure most gardai would find it a bonus to be close to the local chipper. The only downside I can see is cleaning all the pigeon crap off the garda cars but I’m sure the local criminal fraternity can be called upon for that job. Your neighbours could be making some rent money there Michael, I think you’re on to something.

@Niamh, I don’t believe there is any town in Ireland, with a population of 10,000 that does not have a garda station.

@Niamh, example, Roscommon town, around 6,000 Longford town around 7,000
surely these towns have Garda Stations, Would love to Know which town of 10,000 has none ???

Tom I can assure you on both facts, our town has (as the census 2011) 9971 pop, and as of sunday…april 1st no less, with all joking aside, our garda station closed its doors full stop. Now I won’t say where I live on an open forum apart from its north county dubin and you can absolutely take my word on it.

the crime problem is not a lack of garda, but low morals, and with the likes of corrupt bertie getting away with it, it no wonder that others think they can too.
more garda will not solve this, education and a change to or corrupt system starting at the top is the only way

They already were!

sure they’re the very ones implementing these choices, if ya know what im getting at.

Heehee that’ll work. ;)

By ‘near Crosshaven’ do you mean in a smaller village/town nearby, or do you mean that you have a one-off house on a road with grass up the middle of it? If the later, then you made your decision with respect to local services and can’t expect an hourly patrol.

Jeez. The rural/urban divide. There’s a lot of people living along roads with grass up the middle have been there for generations. Point is, everyone can reasonably expect a proper service from State agencies, regardless of where they choose to live…

I think this is the agenda, private security companies masquerading as police.

This is happening in Britain I believe, where in some areas Private Security is taking control of prevention, detection, and even arrest. Policing for profit and policing on the cheap – no way in my book

As a matter of interest graham what is unethical about the current Socialist party

Too dogmatic for most Orla – myself included

A Bit of Fry and Laurie – Privatization of the Police Force

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6CkltzGAxY

You can be sure that there are corporate security interests like Xe wining and dining your politicians and saying “Our units are all ex-US Navy SEALS. You won’t have to pay their pensions. We’ll give you a great deal for the entire 26 county contract. If you have a problem with SEALS, we can recruit from the British Army’s units. They’re expert at dealing with terrorist threats. Of course, they’ll keep their arms and communications. Trust us. We’ve the experience in Afghanistan and Iraq. We can keep you safe. And just to show our appreciation, here’s a little something for the kids at Easter (pushes brown envelope across the table)”

Attack Heliocoptors. rapid response and no paperwork.

In fairness – who would we replace them with? FF again?

Ban party politics altogether. When the next general election comes around let the voters also vote for who they would like in the top positions.

If you ban parties, politics would just be done through closed doors between the politicians – this has happened everywhere else parties have been banned. At least with parties, you know where they stand

The trouble with party politics is the parties themselves. None of the ones on offer at present are very appealing but a new, truly ethical socialist (with a small “S”) party free of the baggage of the past (civil war, corruption etc) would look interesting.

Yes but for every station that closes that’s at least 2 Gardaí away from your area, with longer response times to get there. Their time is not better spent in the community…. in stations they are easily reachable.

that is not necessarily the case Theresa. The stations that are closing are the country stations that may only have two/ three gardai attached to them. these stations are not open 24 hours so they do not take two gardai off the street to keep them opened. the station doors may only be open for a couple of hours a day when them gardai are working. what they do provide is a local garda who knows the country district and the people who live in it. absolutely valuable knowledge that will dwindle with time if these stations close and it is gardai from further afield stations that are dealing with matters as they arise in these areas.

@ El, in theory it will increase response time, if say you live in town “A” that at present has a garda station that has only one garda on duty when you make a call , that garda cant leave the station so you have to wait for a garda from town “B” and if their are 3 garda on duty in town B, one has to stay in the station and the other 2 are out responding to other incedents, so you have to wait until one of thoes garda is free,
but

If you local station closes, your garda would be transfered to station “B” where he would be free and able to respond to you,

So in the above you would be 33% more likely to have garda able to respond to you in time be closing the local station.

Some simple maths models could prove for definite if your town would benefit from the closure if the raw data was available this could easily be done in a few hours, but I’d guess no one in government has ran the figures

sorry at start was meant to say

it will IMPROVE response time

Alot of your points are very true, unfortunate thing is the money will not be re-allocated correctly and the gardai who were once in your area will now be out walking around the bigger towns as there is no money left to by patrol cars which they could use to patrol your area. See where the problems begin?

You’re right, of course. I’m all for the theory of what I prescribe, but shudder at the thought of where the money saved will get wasted (if it even stays in the Garda budget)

The guy obviously had mental health problems, did you calm the guy down and make him a cup of tea or did you just overreact like a total asshole and make the situation worse? Sounds to me like he wasn’t any threat, if the guards knew him and believed he was any danger to you they would have been out, sounds like they were busy with more serious matters. You were lucky you were not born in the other guys shoes, you ought to be thankful for that rather being so mean spirited.

Well said Gay! Ronan, you were just wasting Garda time. The crazy guy who burst into your house was obviously just looking for a nice cup of tea. Stop whinging.

Ronan you should have offered him a couple of Vallium to make him feel a bit more relaxed and welcome in your home. Did you give him a bit of dinner and a can of beer to wash it down and what about the TV remote, I hope you gave him complete control over it while you were waiting for the boys in blue to come and rescue him and sure the kids must have been really excited about having an unexpected visitor.

Proplem there is : A cop makes an arrest in my area he then has to drive 20 miles to the nearest station with the suspect do the paperwork and interview there, so he’s out of the area most of the night. also local cops tend to know there patch. since our local station closed I had cause to call the cops from the nearest town it took an hour and a half for them to arrive and that included them ringing me twice for directions.

As for Mr Shatter, the Minister seems to inhabit a different planet to the rest of us and comes over as arrogant, incompetent and out of touch. Entirely unsuitable for the post in my opinion and a poor judgement call on the Taoiseach who (presumably) appointed Mr Shatter.

What package was offered? First I’ve heard of it.

What “nice package” as you put it were they offered?

What “very nice package”was offered?

They werent offered anything to retire. They were told that if they didnt retire by a certain date they would have their pension cut.

Marian learn your facts, there was no nice package, those that retired did so after years of service to the state and were granted the pension that they were entitled to, and paid into, after a minimum of 30 years. Retirement was taken by many due to the impending cut in gratuity after February 29th

Police are not going to sit in a patrol car all day. Most people recognise the importance of having the Garda station close to hand in case of emergency. STOP BAILING OUT THESE DAMN BANKS AND BANKERS!!!