A senior garda who helped negotiate a new nationwide pilot rostering system in the force says “it needs tweaking” because it has not worked as effectively in rural areas as it has in large towns and cities.

Two officers stationed in Cork have been elected as presidents of the largest Garda representative associations with a combined membership of 13,300.

HUNDREDS of Garda patrol cars, 4x4s and unmarked cars have been taken off the roads in the past four years — but just half of these vehicles have been replaced with new models.

THE gardaí still do not have formal mental health expertise available to them to deal with barricade incidents, three and a half years after the Garda Inspectorate urgently called for it.

GARDAÍ have sought a meeting with Minister for Children Barry Andrews to discuss their ongoing concerns about “not being trained or resourced to act as virtual social workers” to children who require out-of-hours emergency foster care placements.

THE organisation representing rank-and-file gardaí has rowed back on its plans to ballot to strike over pay and conditions.

GARDAÍ are set to get a new radio system in Cork city early next year.

A NUMBER of senior Garda positions in Cork and Limerick are likely to remain unfilled because of an embargo on promotions within the force.

A GARDA association has described as “shambolic” the country’s new out of hours emergency service for children at risk.

A MOTHER has claimed her 16-year-old son, who has serious drug and alcohol problems, will be “found dead on the street” because there are no services to help him.

THE system of dealing with children taken into care is so ad hoc that gardaí have considered bringing children to their own homes, Garda representatives claim.

GARDAÍ say they are being forced to “babysit” vulnerable children in stations around the country because of inadequate responses by the health services.

Garda officers today called for full, nationwide, out-of-hours social services to be set up to protect and care for at risk children.

THE Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has said the lack of proper social worker cover in Cork city was “grossly unfair and damaging to vulnerable young people”.

RANK and file gardaí will be on duty this St Patrick’s weekend — usually their busiest — without basic protective equipment, even though that equipment has been either in storage or on order since the end of last year.

THE sergeant stabbed by a man on Sunday who then took his own life, is expected to make a full recovery — but the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has slammed the Government’s continued failure to protect officers with proper health and safety measures.

NEWCASTLE WEST’S business community last night warned of the anger, fear and frustration running high in the area over the Castlemahon Food Products’ liquidation decision.

EXPERIENCED gardaí would have to keep one eye on rioters and another on reservists if Minister for Justice Michael McDowell pushes through plans to create a back-up force, it was claimed last night.

HUNDREDS of gardaí from all over Munster are expected to meet in a Cork hotel next Monday to show their opposition to Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s plans to create a reserve force.

The Garda PULSE computer system is slow, complex and prone to crashing, it was claimed today.

DAVID McCANN will begin his build-up to a defence of his FBD Insurance RÁS title in Kerry over the Easter weekend, when he lines up as favourite to win the Rás Mumhan, the perfect prelude to Irish cycling’s showpiece.