Cork City 'will not be exposed' by redeployment of public order gardaí to Dublin

Chief Superintendent Tom Myers said Cork City is 'going to see a lot of high-visibility policing' over Christmas

Chief Superintendent Tom Myers told Monday’s meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee (JPC) that "some gardaí" with public order training have been re-assigned to bolster the capital’s policing capabilities. File picture: Denis Minihane

Cork City will not be exposed from a security or policing perspective following the re-assignment of several gardaí from the city’s garda division to the capital in the wake of the Dublin riots.

The assurance came from Chief Superintendent Tom Myers during Monday’s meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee (JPC) where he confirmed that "some gardaí" with public order training have been re-assigned to bolster the capital’s policing capabilities.

“We have sent a small number of gardaí. I am reluctant to give out exact figures but trust me, Cork City isn’t exposed by this taking place. It is a very small figure,” he said.

He was responding to questions from Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, who said he understands why gardaí are being drafted into the capital but he said it’s happening in a year when just four additional gardaí were assigned to the Cork City garda division.

Last week, after a petrol bomb attack on a house on the city’s northside, Mr Ó Laoghaire published figures which showed that in 2009, there were 31 gardaí based in Mahon Garda Station—a figure which has dropped to 17 gardaí, and he said of the 126 most recent graduates from the garda college at Templemore, Cork got just one.

But Chief Supt Myers said with more recruits due to graduate soon, he is hopeful of "a positive announcement".

Christmas policing

He also outlined the details of a high-visibility policing operation which has kicked in across the city centre for Christmas, but he said a lot of gardaí are engaged in court duty, which prevents the deployment of greater numbers of gardaí on the streets during day-time hours.

“We have a plan in place for Christmas, similar to the one we had in place last year,” he said. “We got great feedback on that last year. You’re going to see a lot of high-visibility policing—they are out there in force.

“I know we don’t have the presence that we would like to have in the day-time compared to what we have at night-time. The courts is one of the reasons. We have a lot of guards in court, with a lot of cases on the central criminal court last week, we have had three or four trials on and juries have to be minded.

“We are conscious that we don’t have the presence we’d like, but we have a policing plan in place and I hope the response will be positive.”

But Independent Cllr Thomas Maloney accused Garda Commissioner Drew Harris of “continuously failing Cork City”. He said the commissioner addressed the JPC in June and ruled out using overtime to deploy more guards on the streets, yet weeks later, a €10m overtime budget was announced for policing in Dublin.

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“We need to be proactive, and not reactive to situations," Mr Maloney said. "Gardaí on the beat on the street makes a huge difference and gardaí are scarce on the ground.

“Things like retirements, maternity leave, sick leave, annual leave, desk duty and court duty take gardaí away from the beat on a continual basis. We are not getting the recruits out of Templemore and that is the commissioner’s decision.

“It is within the commissioner’s power and he has continuously failed Cork in relation to recruits coming out of Templemore. We need the commissioner to look at Cork and give it the resources it needs as the second city.” 

Supt John Deasy also told the JPC that members of the garda reserves are being deployed as part of garda operations, especially during large public events and at weekends.