GRA says Clonmel gardaí 'snowed under' with demands of policing due to inadequate staffing

The Garda Representative Association says gardaí at Clonmel Garda Station are “absolutely snowed under” with work due to inadequate staffing levels with the deployment of four newly qualified gardaí to the town making no dent in the shortfall due to transfers and a retirement.

The assignment of four gardaí following their attestation from Templemore Garda College to the station policing Tipperary’s largest town was announced in August.

READ ALSO: TD tells Dáil Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir haven't enough gardaí in call for more officers

But the GRA says their deployment hasn’t increased the busy station’s officer numbers due to the transfer of five officers and retirement of a sergeant. This means Clonmel Garda Station has experienced a net loss of two officers.

The GRA’s representative for Tipperary Garda Richie Kennedy said three of the officers were transferred from Clonmel to Carrick-on-Suir Garda Station where they are badly needed as that station’s manpower is “absolutely shockingly low”.

Garda Kennedy said every garda station in county Tipperary is far below the level of personnel it should have for the county’s population and compared with other centres with comparable populations. He said counties Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford all have more gardai.

He pointed out that south Tipperary, for example, has a lot of significant urban centres apart from Clonmel such as Cashel, Cahir, Tipperary Town and Carrick-on-Suir that all require substantial garda numbers.

Gda. Kennedy said he has been “beating the drum” for a long time about the lack of manpower, especially in Clonmel, which has the county’s biggest Garda station.

He said gardaí stationed in the town are “absolutely snowed under” with the demands on them.
The Clonmel man has noticed there are far fewer gardaí on the beat in the town compared to when he was growing up.

He pointed out the station has units of six gardaí per shift which is too small for a town and district of its size.

“In Clonmel the gardaí always have a call to go to,. They just go from call to call to call. There are no extra bodies to do the beat properly. Clonmel has a small city population. They need units of 10 officers not six to really police it properly.”

Gda Kennedy also expressed concern that Clonmel Garda Station is currently “top heavy” with young inexperienced gardaí with not enough experienced officers to mentor them. He believed there was a need to incentivise gardaí more to continue working after completing 30 years service.

“There is a real lack of gardai with over four years service. They are really having to hit the ground running. It’s really sink or swim for them.”

Gda. Kennedy said the assignment of 10 newly attested gardaí to stations in county Tipperary in August was the first sizeable allocation of gardaí the county has received in a number of years.

“We have been getting dribs and drabs since recruitment resumed after the Covid pandemic. We lost a lot of members on transfer. Usually what we get only replaces what is lost.”

He said Tipperary needs to get a similar number of gardaí from the next four groups of Garda recruits to graduate from Templemore to bring manpower up to an acceptable level across the county.

He believed part of the problem stems from the structural reforms of the force introduced during Drew Harris’ seven year tenure as Garda Commissioner.

Gda. Kennedy estimated the force’s numbers increased by 280 during Harris’ term. He contended this number was not noticeable when spread across the country with many of those extra gardaí absorbed into specialist units like the protected services, drugs and emergency response.

He acknowledged these specialist units are badly needed but it has meant the number of officers assigned to front line policing has suffered. The GRA’s concerns about staffing levels were put to An Garda Síochána but The Nationalist hadn’t received a response at the time of going to press.

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