Gardaí interview crime victims in garden

CONDITIONS in garda stations are deteriorating to such an extent that in one station, officers sometimes have to interview crime victims in a garden.

Gardaí in Carrigaline Garda Station in Co Cork have complained that the condition of their station was so bad they often have to interview victims in a garden outside.

“The conditions in Carrigaline are a disgrace, they are chronic,” said Michael Kirby of the Garda Representative Association.

He said while he hadn’t heard of interviews being carried out in a nearby garden in Carrigaline he said he wasn’t shocked by it.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all, the working conditions there are terrible.” George Maybury of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said they were pressing the conditions at Carrigaline with the authorities.

“We’re quite aware the standard of accommodation in Carrigaline is not good and members are very dissatisfied with the working conditions there,” he said.

The 20 gardaí in the station are angry because work on the station had been supposed to begin last June.

They said there was a lack of privacy and space in the two-room station, which is a converted private house The station serves a community of 15,000.

Mr Maybury said the problem was similar throughout the country.

“There’s a lot of good stations, but there’s quite a lot of very bad stations. Many need substantial renovation or in some situations need to be knocked down and rebuilt.”

He said bad accommodation obviously affected garda morale as well as civilians, particularly crime victims.

Mr Kirby said: “Gardaí are having to do their jobs with great difficulty. Stations are in a chronic state all over the country.”