SOCIAL DEMOCRAT JUSTICE spokesperson Gary Gannon has criticised what he called the “deterioration” of the Garda Armed Support Unit (ASU) affecting parts of Leinster.

It comes after The Journal learned that the specialist unit is set to see its two units in Mullingar, Co Westmeath amalgamated to a single unit due to a shortage of gardaí.

The Garda ASU contains a series of regional armed teams that respond to serious and often violent incidents throughout their division.

It’s understood gardaí the Eastern Region were formally notified earlier this month by Garda management about the plans to amalgamate the current two units.

The unit covers an area that includes counties Meath, Laois, Offaly, Longford and Kildare in the Eastern region.

Gannon said the shortage needed to be addressed by the new Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly and Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan as soon as possible.

He argued that the shortage was endemic of the government’s “Humpty Dumpty approach to crime prevention and deterrence”, where efforts will be taken to boost numbers only when it’s too late.

“I believe when you remove the capacity to intervene to the most violent crime, it will only be felt when we need it the most – and the gardaí will not have the capacity to intervene at that point,” Gannon said.

“There will then be a struggle for resources and redirection from elsewhere.”

Calling the reduction “short sighted”, Gannon said it leaves gardaí “vulnerable and the communities they’re asked to serve vulnerable”.

While there is still one ASU unit, it’s expected there will be periods where members of the ASU unit in Wexford and Waterford will instead be tasked with responding to calls that are normally handled by the Mullingar and Newbridge units.

The units typically operate with a sergeant and a team of the highly trained gardaí. However, one unit in Mullingar was recently reduced to just one serving Garda and a sergeant.

The issue was previously raised at the annual Garda union conference earlier this year.

Key among the concerns at the Garda Representatives Association (GRA) conference this year was that there are up to 30 candidates who qualified two years ago for the ASU – but who have still not been deployed despite qualifying for the unit more than two years ago.

The members continue in frontline policing roles in the main.

There are now fresh concerns that the holdup in deployment of trained members could result in further deterioration of the unit’s manpower.

Several gardaí in Leinster have outlined to The Journal how the current ASU units based in Mullingar and Newbridge are under-resourced due to a combination of promotions, transfers and retirements.

On this, Gannon said that the qualified gardaí should be deployed to bolster numbers in the armed units where possible.

“These people obviously made a decision that is brave, they would have consulted their families, put themselves through the training and at the end of all that upskilling were met with effectively an empty room,” he said.

“Over two years have passed now and that they haven’t been deployed demonstrates a hell of lot of disrespect to these gardaí.”

Garda response

When contacted, the Garda Press Office said it does not comment on deployment of resources for operational reasons.

A spokesperson said that gardaí operate the ASU through a regional strategy which “ensures that the most appropriate Garda resources, including Regional Armed Support Units, are available to respond” to incidents and calls from the public.

“The allocation of personnel to each Regional Armed Support Unit base is an operational matter, subject to ongoing review by Garda Management,” the spokesperson said.

“In general terms where vacancies arise in any particular location, they are filled at the earliest opportunity by appropriately assigned members.”