Garda leader warns against centralisation

POLICING in Ireland will go back to the Dark Ages if the Government adopts a recommendation to centralise gardaí in district headquarters, a garda leader will tell his organisation’s annual seminar today.

Joe Dirwan, the President of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), described the proposal as “total nonsense.”

Mr Dirwan will deliver the keynote address to the AGSI’s annual training seminar in the Radisson Hotel, Athlone today.

The contentious proposal was one brought by the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) to Government, where it is being considered at present.

“The proposal is to remove personnel from local garda stations and to centralise them at District Headquarters level,” he said.

“This is a business-led so-called ‘solution’ to a policing situation and it is total nonsense.”

Mr Dirwan warned that if the proposal were carried through, gardaí would lose their traditional contact with local people and communities.

“We will not be seen by the people. We will be divorced from them,” he said.

“They will feel more vulnerable and fearful. We will not hear things. We will not get that helpful, confidential feedback from the communities who want us to know what is going on among them.

“The SMI proposals will put policing in this country back into the Dark Ages. I urge the Government to reject that part of the SMI proposals when they make their decision on the report.”

Mr Dirwan welcomed the Government’s timetable to increase the number of officers in the force to 14,000 and called for a corresponding increase in supervisors.

He also called for an equitable allocation of the new numbers to all areas and a dramatic improvement in accommodation.