‘Incredibly unfair’ - Longford Gardaí unable to attend call-outs for fear of leaving station unstaffed

Members of An Garda Síochána have turned down calls for help from Longford residents for fear of leaving their station unstaffed, the Dáil has heard.

The issue was raised by Longford-Westmeath Sinn Féin TD Sorca Clarke during a recent motion on garda recruitment.

Deputy Clarke began by arguing that there are not enough gardaí stationed in her constituency.

She stated: “My constituency is split across two separate Garda divisions. If I look at the numbers on a spreadsheet, I can tell the House that the number of gardaí in Meath–Westmeath is 551. That area is 4,200 sq. km.

“Roscommon–Longford has 581 gardaí and that area is over 9,000 sq. km. I do not need a spreadsheet to tell me that we do not have enough gardaí in our towns, villages and rural communities.”

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She went on to detail a meeting that took place in a rural part of Westmeath as an example of issues being faced across the constituency..

“There was recently a meeting in Rochfortbridge, Westmeath, on road safety and roads policing.

“The garda who attended, a very dedicated garda heading the traffic corps, came from Navan, which is 50 km away. What does that say to the people of Rochfortbridge?

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“What does it say to the people of a very small rural community if the head of the traffic corps has to travel 50 km from a major town to their little rural village?

“It says their concerns are not being heeded and will always be of lower priority than those of other areas. That is incredibly unfair.”

Deputy Clarke then highlighted the issues being caused by the understaffing of stations in County Longford.

“It is also incredibly unfair for the people living in Longford, who, when they call the Garda station to get a response to an incident, are told the gardaí cannot go out because they cannot leave the station unstaffed.

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“That is not a functioning Garda model; that is a broken Garda model. It is also very unfair on our gardaí.”

She concluded by saying that the problem needed to be fixed because people across her constituency “deserve better”.