Justice Minister defends new Garda plan for Athlone area
During a visit to Athlone on Monday, the Minister for Justice defended the new Garda operational changes that are due to take effect in Westmeath before the end of this year.
Under the new system, Athlone will no longer have a Garda Superintendent with geographical responsibility for the town and its surrounds.
Instead the Superintendent based in Athlone is to be given responsibility for the "performance assurance functional area" across the new merged Garda division of Meath and Westmeath.
Local councillors have described the change as a downgrading of Athlone Garda Station, but when she was questioned on Monday Minister McEntee predicted the new Garda operational model would be a success.
"Change can be challenging, and I accept that. But I do think that these changes overall, the new operating model, will benefit people," she said.
The Minister said she wanted to reassure the public that there would be "a significant presence of Gardai in Athlone" under the new model.
She said the changes were designed to make best use of "the individuals we have, making sure the civilian staff are doing the work of civilian staff, and that frontline Gardai are out on the beat patrolling.
"These changes are happening across the country. They haven't been fully implemented in certain areas, including in Westmeath and in my own county of Meath, where both counties will be joined up together.
"What we will have is an increased number of Inspectors and Sergeants, and we will have Superintendents right across the country," said Minister McEntee.
She said growth in Garda numbers would be key to the success of the new operational model.
"I was in Templemore (last) Friday, where we had 126 new recruits. We're building momentum when it comes to overall recruitment. We're having attestations every three months now and I want to see that continue so that we get to that level of 15,000 Garda members.
"I would ask people to trust in that change and the structures that are being put in place. There will be a significant presence of Gardai in Athlone, and it's to reassure people of that, but this change in structures means there will be a particular emphasis and focus on community policing, different to what we've ever had before.
"There will be a particular emphasis on crime and making sure we have the right numbers and the relevant teams in place to be able to respond to everybody's individual needs."
Minister McEntee was speaking during a visit to the Mardyke Street offices of the Esker House Domestic Abuse Support Service.
She announced that Esker House was being awarded €101,903 from a €3 million Community Safety Innovation Fund, and that this money would be used by the local service to deliver a domestic abuse community awareness and training project.