Gardaí ‘prepared to walk out’ of archaic station

THE organisation representing the country’s rank-and-file gardaí has said its members are prepared to walk out of an archaic Garda station in a Cork suburb if they’re not provided with alternative accommodation soon.

Garda Representative Association (GRA) national executive member John Parker said the Victorian-era station in Glanmire simply isn’t suitable for modern-day policing.

Gardaí, who have to oversee a population of more than 25,000, have put up with overcrowding, inadequate facilities and lack of parking in Glanmire for several years and are now at the end of their tether, according to the GRA.

Male and female gardaí have to share the same toilets and changing facilities and there are no proper storage areas.

There is no interview room in the station and no cells or adequate access for members of the public who suffer from disability.

“Gardaí are falling over each other. It is high on the list of possibilities that they will walk out of the station if the situation isn’t expedited quickly,” Garda Parker said.

GRA members will arrive in the station today to carry out a health and safety audit. What is likely to be of serious concern to them is that the terraced three-storey station doesn’t have a fire exit, which, they say, wouldn’t be tolerated in any other building occupied by public service workers.

Several attempts have been made in the past 15 years to build a new station in the satellite town, but they have come to nothing.

Garda management recently identified a vacant premises which would be suitable, but the GRA is concerned that bureaucratic red tape could mean any move would happen later, rather than sooner.

“We are told there is light at the end of the tunnel, but I can tell you it wouldn’t want to be a long tunnel,” Garda Parker said.

Chief Superintendent Kieran McGann, who is in charge of the Cork North Garda Division, of which Glanmire is a part, agreed that conditions in the station were poor. However, he said Garda management was doing everything possible to address this.

Chief Supt McGann said: “Obviously this will have to go for tender. Everything is being done by Garda management to push this forward and provide a speedy resolution.”