Concerns aired over garda manpower and response times

Concerns about the response times and lack of resources such as vehicles currently being experienced by gardaí in Donegal have prompted Donegal County Council to ask Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to come to the county at his earliest possible opportunity.

The issues arose during Monday's full council meeting at the Aura Leisure Centre in Lettterkenny where a motion from Cllr Terry Crossan's called on the council to write to the garda commissioner demanding that more resources are made available for Donegal, particularly in villages along the border.

He said he was making the call following a conversation with his local garda superintendent when she was considering the redeployment of gardaí from a local village to another station much further from the Border.

"During our conversation, she told me she was seriously under-resourced in terms of manpower and vehicles. It is clearly evidenced this is the case in terms of response times in many instances.

"Only last Monday gardaí were summons to attend here at the Aura and it took them more than 45 minutes to respond. They cited that no vehicle was available as their reason for the delay, This is clearly unacceptable."

He said he was requesting the council to write to the commissioner to ask him to make more resources available to gardaí, especially in the border and the wider north Inishowen-Carndonagh areas where officers had been redeployed.

Cllr Crossan said they should also extend an invitation to the commissioner to attend a Joint Policing Committee (JPC) meeting in the not too distant future.

Seconding the motion Cllr Gerry McMonagle said he too had no doubt that there was a serious lack of resources in terms of personnel and vehicles to support the gardaí in Donegal.

"I'm getting an increasing number of reports from the gardaí and the community about the length of response times by the gardaí to any given incident."

He added they had all heard the calls made by the local Garda Representative Association in Donegal pointing out difficulties such as transport, station closures and redeployments.

"The JPC has written to the commissioner several times asking him to attend to hear of the problems patrolling an area as vast as Donegal. I hope he takes heed and responds to our request," he said.

The motion was unanimously agreed upon.