End OPW involvement in building stations, urge gardaí

THE Garda Representative Association has demanded the Office of Public Works be removed from all involvement in building and refurbishing garda stations, because of its poor track record.

Instead the GRA, which represents 10,500 rank and file gardaí, wants the Department of Justice to take direct control of building. This would remove the OPW, which gardaí see as an unnecessary middleman.

GRA central executive committee member Owen Connell said some stations were in an appalling condition and had been for several years.

“In Ballinhassig, Co Cork gardaí have been working out of a portacabin for the last 22 years, even though the manufacturers said it had a lifetime of 12 years,” he said. “The divisional headquarters in Wexford is a disgrace. If it was occupied by any other workers they’d have walked out years ago. In Portlaoise and Athlone they (the OPW) have been looking for sites for years. Sligo is basically a row of terraced houses with more steps inside it than the Eiffel Tower.”

Another executive member, Pat O’Sullivan, said gardaí had been “conned” for years over promises to build a new station in Dunmanway, Co Cork, and it was only now, following a threatened walkout, that progress was being made.

He said gardaí weren’t even allowed to change a light bulb on their own and this had to be done by the OPW.

“Every housewife in the country can change one. We have to write to the OPW to get them to do it and it can take them six to eight months to replace one,” Garda O’Sullivan said.

GRA deputy general secretary John Healy said 56 stations needed replacement and claimed the one in Bailieboro should be “evacuated immediately” because of its dire state.

“The blame clearly lies with the OPW,” he added.

Even the state of some newly built stations didn’t escape criticism. Garda Arthur Coughlan said the station built two years ago in New Ross, at a cost of €5 million, had 19 leaks in the roof, lacked proper air conditioning and the toilets got blocked.