Kerry's 20 one-man garda stations would be hit
Closure of rural garda stations
Related Articles
PROPOSALS to close half of the country's 703 garda stations would make it next to impossible to police rural areas, with proposed cuts likely to hit Kerry's 20 oneman garda stations.
If recommendations of An Bord Snip Nua report are followed, the likelihood is that Kerry's rural stations will become defunct, spelling worrying times for the vulnerable in rural parts of the county.
When the issue raised its head earlier this year in light of a proposed national review of the force, the Kerry Garda Representative Association said that policing rural Kerry will become next to impossible for gardaí.
With crime expected to rise as the recession bites deeper, it makes for a grim horizon for the security of the Kerry countryside.
Coupled with an expected 'brain-drain' of up to 20 of the county's top gardaí before the end of the year — as senior members retire to escape cuts indicated in the recent budget — the GRA says that the closures will fly in the face of accepted best practice and the Garda Commissioner's policing plan.
"If the stations close, it will cause huge difficulties for rural people and prove once more that the Government have completely lost contact with rural Ireland," the GRA spokesperson told The Kerryman.
"Instead of being a proactive service as all police forces should be, the Garda Síochána will become a reactive one in rural areas and with crime already rising it's hard to see how we can adequately serve this huge part of the populace," he said.
The report states that at present, the number of garda stations in the country is 'very high' at 703, and that many of these are in need of extensive refurbishment.
' It is recommended that the Garda Station Network be reduced by around half and that should be the unction of the Garda Commissioner to decide which stations should be maintained, based on operational grounds,' the report reads.
It is also suggested that apart from the savings on annual maintenance costs, the once off revenues from the disposal of suitable properties could be used to refurbish and upgrade existing stations.
- MARISA REIDY mreidy@kerryman.ie
