Gardai hit by absentees as former cop warns 'centralisation will sound the death knell '

Over nine per cent of An Garda Síochána members and staff in Donegal are currently off on sick leave.

As of Thursday, there were 39 personnel off sick in the Donegal Garda Division.

The figures were confirmed by Chief Superintendent Aidan Glacken on Friday at a meeting of the Donegal Joint Policing Committee (JPC), which heard concerns over the strength of the force and an absence of a visible presence at many garda stations. There are growing fears among people in rural areas of Donegal regarding the presence of officers and concerns that the force is being ‘centralised’.

Chief Superintendent Glacken told the meeting that there are currently 432 personnel, including 362 gardai, employed in the Donegal Garda Division.

While he noted that this was up from 330 gardai and a total workforce of 386 in 2017, Deputy Pearse Doherty said the force has been ‘depleted’ in the last three years.

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“There is a drop and if you look at the averages we had more three years ago,” Deputy Doherty said. Deputy Doherty pointed out that since 2020 there are now three fewer gardai in the Ballyshannon District with the Letterkenny District falling by 14, the Milford District dropping by four and Buncrana now showing nine gardai fewer.

“There is an issue here in terms of Garda strength.

“Really, is the Garda Commissioner supporting our Gardai in Donegal? I assume you have asked that some of those 151 new gardai who are set to be deployed in the next few weeks be sent to Donegal. Are we getting the support at the top level?”

Chief Superintendent Glacken said there were issues over recruitment and retention and pointed out that there was ‘little or no recruiting’ in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said there were three people allocated to Donegal from the last group to pass out from Templemore. In response to a question from Deputy Doherty, Chief Superintendent Glacken said he was not sure how many of the 151 people set to attest on December 15 would be allocated to Donegal.

“We only got three out of the last allocation and we should be getting eight or nine,” Deputy Doherty said. “Donegal is getting less than half of what it would be entitled to. Garda numbers have dropped in every District in the last three years. We had 30 more gardai in Donegal three years ago and that has to be an area of concern.”

Chief Superintendent Glacken said he would continue to ‘fight’ to get more resources for the county.

He said: “Sometimes we have to slice and dice the resources. We have a whole lot of areas that we have to police and we can’t have a garda at every street corner. We have what we have.”

Chief Superintendent Glacken confirmed that 39 personnel in the Donegal Division are currently off sick. These include some who have been injured on duty, others who have been assaulted or have long-term illness. As of Thursday, the figure represented just over nine per cent of the An Garda Síochána’s employees in Donegal.

He added that the Donegal Division is ‘maintaining a par’ and not seeing a greater increase in retirements than the national average.

Councillor Michael McBride told the meeting that he has been to Kilmacrennan Garda Station four times in recent weeks and the station has been shut each time.

“There is no one there and no one has a clue what time it is opened,” Councillor McBride said. “Any wee bit of business that people have to do, it is complete trial and error. Even if people knew that a garda would be available on two half-days a week, at least they would know.

“We are in a very vulnerable position in the Milford District and it is not acceptable what is happening at the moment.”

In response, Inspector Seamus McGonigle told Councillor McBride that a garda is assigned to Kilmacrennan Garda Station and is ‘in Kilmacrennan for the entirety of his shifts’.

Former Garda Sergeant James Trearty, a member of the Donegal Public Participation Network (PPN) raised concerns at what he said is a perceived centralisation of officers.

“Centralisation sounds the death knell for rural communities,” Mr Trearty said. “Everything is closing in rural communities, from shops, banks to post offices and I would hate to think that An Garda Síochána is going down the same routes.”

He highlighted two stations, in Doochary and Churchill, that are now permanently closed and mentioned eight more - Kerrykeel, Ramelton, Rathmullan, Carrigart, Creeslough, Kilmacrennan, Annagry and Burtonport - which are partly-closed.

“Eight of these stations are in Gaeltacht areas,” Mr Trearty said. “These stations previously would have had four sergeants and probably 22 Gardai attached to them, but now there is nobody. Centralisation will sound the death knell of the force in Donegal. The Garda Commissioner (Drew Harris) is coming from a previous force (PSNI) where centralisation was the name of the game.

“I would hate to think that Gaeltacht areas in west Donegal would be served eventually from Letterkenny. These stations are being diluted.”

Chief Superintendent Glacken said that all sub stations are ‘patrolled by Gardai on a 24-7 basis’. He said: “I have said here no intention to close any garda station in Donegal. We will introduce an operating model next year which doesn’t have centralisation as part of it. There is no intention to close any garda station or to centralised people from external stations into the centre.

The JPC meeting heard that theft from the person incidents have risen from four to 14 in the first eleven months of 2023 - an increase described by Councillor McBride as ‘alarming’. Burglary is up by 16 per cent, theft from cars is down 32 per cent with assault causing harm falling by 25 per cent. Incidents of minor assaults are slightly down with public order incidents falling by around nine per cent.