Shake-up of Garda districts may scupper plans for new station
For 20 years, gardaí in Glanmire have been looking for a new station to replace a substandard Victorian building which the Garda Representative Association has branded totally unsuitable and unsafe.
The GRA threatened last year to have a health and safety inspection carried out at the garda station.
Senior management identified a new premises which they planned to kit out to make suitable. They were informed the funding for this had been “ringfenced” by the OPW and the Department of Justice.
Gardaí had hoped to move into the new station in the next few months, but it now appears that the plan may have been scuppered.
It is planned to break up the Cobh Garda District, of which Glanmire is part.
Garda bosses are drawing up plans to put the Glanmire area under the direct control of Mayfield and as a result, it seems likely a new station will not be built in Glanmire as the Garda headquarters in Mayfield is only minutes away.
The Department of Justice said yesterday that plans for the new station in Glanmire were an operational matter for Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan.
A department spokeswoman said Commissioner Callinan was to make a report on the future of a number of stations next October.
Senator John Gilroy, who lives in Glanmire, is to raise the issue in the Seanad today.
“I will be asking the minister for justice to clarify the position,” he said.
“Last year, it was announced that the OPW had signed a contract to purchase a premises for a new garda station in Glanmire.
“My concerns centre around the fact that the proposal to amalgamate part of the Cobh garda district with Mayfield may result in the proposed new garda station in Glanmire not now going ahead.”
