Lack of space forces gardaí to rent hotel rooms

Gardaí have been forced to rent rooms in a hotel because there is no space left in their station, it emerged tonight.

Tallaght garda station has hired several rooms in the nearby Plaza Hotel, in south Dublin, because of a chronic lack of accommodation.

A senior Opposition politician branded the arrangement a disgrace and complained he wasn’t getting any answers as to exactly what duties are being carried out in the hotel.

Pat Rabbitte, TD for the area, pressed Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy on the matter during an Oireachtas committee.

The Labour Party justice spokesman claimed later outside the parliamentary meeting that the question was avoided.

“That’s my umpteenth time of politely trying to find out what’s going on,” he said.

“You can either draw the conclusion from that that the Commissioner didn’t want to answer or he doesn’t know.”

Mr Rabbitte said he became aware of the arrangement last November when he attended a meeting at the popular hotel, which also houses inquest hearings by the Dublin County Coroner.

The Dublin south west TD said that without information he had been seeking, it was too early to say what security or financial implications, if any, could arise from the temporary accommodation.

“I suppose they will tell you that they have provided against that, but it’s unusual and it highlights in a dramatic way the scarcity of provision,” he said.

“The fact that they have taken the space is the extraordinary issue to me, whether its 40 rooms or 20 rooms.

“It is just the fact that they have been forced to get additional accommodation and take it in a hotel.”

Commissioner Murphy confirmed outside the Leinster House meeting that hotel rooms were being used as office space for the Tallaght garda station.