Garda station ‘no better than sweatshop’

THE organisation representing the country’s rank-and-file gardaí has described conditions at a Garda station in Co Cork “as no better than a Third World sweatshop factory”.

The group is preparing to take legal action to have the Victorian-era station in Glanmire shut down.

The vice-president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), John Parker, said senior members of his organisation visited the Glanmire station a week ago and were “appalled by what they saw”.

“I have arranged for a health and safety expert to view the building early next month with a view to documenting the hazards and risk to life in the station,” Garda Parker said.

He said there were no doubts the results of the audit would form the basis of an official complaint to the Health and Safety Authority, and for the enforcement of legal action to close down the station.

“I believe the survey will condemn the upper floor of the station, which would leave the gardaí with no offices, locker rooms, showers, toilets or kitchen facilities,” he said.

Last year, the GRA instructed Garda management that the association would tell its members to abandon Glanmire and police the area from Cobh if a new station was not opened.

The GRA said it intends to follow through with the threat because, while another building has been purchased in Glanmire, the Department of Justice is holding up the paperwork that would allow gardaí to move into it.

“Unfortunately for the public, if we are forced to move to Cobh it will have severe consequences as it would lessen the policing service for people living in the greater Glanmire area and significantly increase response times,” the vice-president said.

Gda Parker, who is also chairman of the GRA’s heath and safety committee, said he had visited the station.

“There are many hazards in what is a very old building,” he said. “The stairs to the upper floor are too steep and too narrow and built of wood, which is illegal these days in a public building.

“There is no fire escape; it’s a deathtrap. There are better working conditions in a Third World sweatshop factory.

“It is also a hazard to the public as there is no disabled access. To add to that there is no secure parking available for the patrol cars of the members’ private cars,” Gda Parker said.

He added that a high-powered inter-departmental delegation visited Glanmire garda station last year and agreed it was one of the worst buildings they had ever seen.

“We were informed, as a result, that they were fast-tracking the paperwork for the move and that a new site had been purchased for a station. Since then the fast-tracking has been on some kind of red tape merry-go-round,” Gda Parker said.

He added, however, that senior Garda management in the region were pushing hard to get a new station and had made it a top priority.