Donegal has ‘not enough’ Gardaí, Superintendent admits

One of Donegal’s most senior Garda officers has said there are “not enough” officers on the beat in the county.

Superintendent Karen Duffy was speaking at a meeting of the Donegal Local Community Safety Partnership (LCSP) in Lifford.

Superintendent Duffy was responding to queries and concerns about Garda numbers and operations in the Donegal Division.

“We can all acknowledge that there are not enough Gardai in Donegal,” Superintendent Duffy said. “We are continually advocating for more Gardai in Donegal, but ultimately it is a matter for the Commissioner.”

Superintendent Duffy said that the new Operating Model is “national policy beyond our control”.

Donegal is now split into two community engagement areas, Donegal North - under Superintendent Siobhan Mollahan - and Donegal South - under Superintendent Duffy. 

Detective Superintendent Shaun Grant has responsibility for Donegal Crime Functional Area while Superintendent David Kelly has responsibility for Donegal Performance Assurance Functional Area.

John McCafferty, of Comharchumann Forbatha & Fastaiochta Arainn Mhor CFFA, told the meeting that you could drive from Donegal to Galway now and “not meet a squad car”.

“Is that due to a changing of the future or can we expect more Gardai on the roads?” he asked. “We shouldn’t have to wait for the worst to meet a Garda. We have crime prevention officers and programmes on Arranmore, which have been very successful, but the long and the short of it is that we need more Gardai on our roads.”

James Trearty, a retired Garda sergeant and a member of Termon Clean Up Group, outlined the issue of the lack of Gardai in the Gaeltact areas of Donegal.

“You could leave Ramelton and go all the way around the coast to you land in Donegal Town and the amount of stations with no Garda attached is frightening,” Mr Trearty said. 

“The local touch will be lost if there is no Garda to take allocations in those stations.

“In the lifetime of the Donegal JPC (Joint Policing Committee), two Garda Stations were closed and sold, in Doochary and Churchill, and I understand that Glenfin is also gone. It’s a sad state of affairs.”

Mr Trearty raised the issue of the new operating model, noting that the Superintendent based in Ballyshannon Garda Station has autonomy all the way to the Log Cabin near Creeslough.

“It is a vast distance and it is just not acceptable,” he said. “The Minister said that if the situation wasn’t working then he would give consent to reverting to five Superintendents in Donegal.”

Superintendent Duffy said that the operating model roll-out would be reviewed on a national basis, while the OPW was responsible for the selling of stations.

Mountcharles-based Donegal County Councillor Jimmy Brogan said a campaign should be set up to discourage the “scourge” of drugs in the county.

“The more Gardai we have on our streets, the better,” he said. “Gardai are under-staffed and we need to contact someone to get more Gardai into Donegal. we should get a decent and fair share. I think that we also need a drugs task force to work with our youth.”

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Councillor Michael McClafferty raised the issue of a dedicated dog unit for the county.

“We were of the understanding that we were to get a drugs unit and a drug unit, but all of that seems to have been forgotten,” Councillor McClafferty said. “It was very close, but now it seems like it is very far out again. It has drifted away. We have an equipped van in Milford Garda Station read to go, Gardai went for the training, but the dog never arrived. 

“A dog would be as good as 10 people for detecting drugs. We should have our own drug dog in Donegal.”