Car crisis sees police service ‘grind to a halt’
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said criminals would have a “field day” when the operational budget for the Garda fleet ran out by the end of October.
Addressing Justice Minister Alan Shatter at their annual conference, AGSI president Padraic Dolan also said the decision to close 39 Garda stations this year was “absolutely disgraceful”.
Mr Dolan said gardaí needed transport to do their basic jobs of answering calls, catching criminals, and responding to bad driving.
“Without transport, the police service will grind to a halt — and that is exactly what is happening.”
Mr Dolan said that at the end of last year the Garda fleet consisted of 2,650 vehicles, of which only about 7% were less than two years old and just over 8% less than five years old.
“The vast majority of the fleet is, therefore, older than five years. We are losing a vehicle a day because of the rule that says they must be ‘retired’ on reaching 300,000 miles. That means on average we are down 350 or so a year.”
He called on the Government to talk to car manufacturers about allowing the force to continue driving cars beyond the industry limit of 300,000 miles.
He said the operational budget to run the fleet was €20m this year, but it actually cost €2m a month.
“That means we have been allocated enough for 10 months and, I have to ask, will all our vehicles grind to a halt for two whole months? Criminals will have a field day.”
Mr Dolan said the decision to close garda stations was “absolutely disgraceful” and said it was made without a glimmer of consultation with the AGSI or with local communities.
Mr Dolan was also critical of how Garda management behaved during the long running negotiations on the new roster system, due to be introduced late this month.
The failure to install proper IT systems to run the rosters would result in “confusion and inefficiency.”
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