Harris under fire over north Longford garda station's future

Not for the first time, Fine Gael Cllr Paraic Brady hit out at what he claimed was the continued “downgrade” of the north Longford station amid claims phonecalls are being re-rooted to a Galway location.

Cllr Brady, who was speaking at a recent Granard Municipal District meeting, insisted his derision was not aimed at garda management locally, but rather senior bosses in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

“What's more is all of the undercover detectives have moved into Longford,” he said.

“We are no longer known as a garda force because Drew Harris has implemented a English style police force in this country.”

Cllr Brady, who received the backing of his fellow councillors, said the only way to ensure Granard garda station remained in place was if government chiefs appointed a new garda superintendent to Granard.

“What we need is more gardaí on the ground,” he said.

“I am not criticising the guards at all, what I am criticising is the system that is in place.”

Cllr Brady said recent changes to garda boundaries which saw the former Roscommon/Longford division being replaced to include that of Mayo also needed to be revisited.

He said the inadequacy of the new policing model had been illustrated locally in recent days in which he claimed resulted in two patrol cars being left out of commission temporarily.

In a bid to highlight his concerns, Cllr Brady led calls for a letter to be sent to Justice Minister Helen McEntee.

Fellow Councillor PJ Reilly backed those sentiments up, describing the current situation as being “unfair” to the citizens of north Longford.

“I do not agree with Granard garda station being downgraded because it represents a very large area of the community in north Longford,” he said.

“Since there is only two garda districts in Longford, Granard and Longford, it is very unfair to the people of north Longford to see it being downgraded.”

Like Cllr Brady before him, Cllr Reilly said there was now an onus on government chiefs to step in.

“I would like to see a superintendent back in Granard because I do think it is unfair to have one superintendent across the county,” he said.

“Granard needs its own independent superintendent because it is serving half the county.”