Garda deployment – Major flaws in organisational structure

The report that 3,000 gardaí are being drafted into Dublin for the May Day weekend, which amounts to a quarter of the whole national force, has frightening implications. Stations around the country will inevitably be seriously depleted.

With more than half of the country’s traffic corps being deployed to Dublin, there will be very few gardaí for traffic duty elsewhere.

On the same weekend last year the gardaí actually launched Operation Taisteal, a much-publicised offensive to crack down on dangerous driving over the long weekend.

Thousands of extra gardaí were deployed at checkpoints throughout the State. Yet there were eight road deaths in motor accidents that weekend, which was more than double the three road deaths during the corresponding weekends in each of the two previous years.

Having witnessed the more than doubling of deaths last year while the gardaí were waging a major traffic initiative, the decision to cut their numbers drastically this year exposes major flaws in the organisational structure.

In addition to the 3,000 extra gardaí, the Department of Defence is deploying some 2,500 members of the Defence Forces in Dublin. Even if the people in the rest of the country have to face their roads in trepidation, those in the capital will, no doubt, be greatly relieved to know that, in addition to the bomb squad, the CBRN unit from the Department of Defence will be on hand to deal with any chemical, biological, radiation or nuclear attacks.