Criminals will ‘take advantage’ of closures

GARDA staff associations reacted angrily to the decision to close 31 stations and reduce the hours in 10 others.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) described it as a “solemn” development in the policing of the country.

GRA president Damien McCarthy said: “Some of the biggest crimes have been solved in the smallest stations.

“The local Garda station is the physical embodiment of this principle. This principle is now threatened.”

He said the station network, so carefully constructed in 1922, survived the armed attacks of 1926.

“The network served the state well through the poverty of the 1930s, the emergency situation in the Second World War, the austerity of the 1950s, the economic desperation of the 1980s and several decades of the Troubles.

“But not, it seems, the post-boom economy of a modern European country.”

He said closing a station re-engineered the “genetic code” of policing in Ireland.

“The implications of such are that it will be harder to gather the information and intelligence that effective crime prevention, detection and investigation relies upon. Crimes become harder to solve.”

Mr McCarthy added: “The closure of Garda stations is not going to save a huge amount of money. Can we no longer afford to have a small building designated as a Garda station? Is this how far we have come as a nation?”

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said it deplored the move.

Deputy general secretary John Redmond said: “This represents a further loss of contact with local communities throughout the country and will inevitably lead to a rise in crime in some areas.”

“Criminals will target those areas in a bid to take advantage of the new situation where gardaí are increasingly being withdrawn to the larger centres,” he added.