Concern grows over shortage of Gardai in Athlone and Moate

People are having to wait too long for Gardai to respond to calls about burglaries and other incidents, according to local councillors, who this week voiced increasing concern about a shortage of policing resources and the impact it was having on Athlone and surrounding areas.

"We need people on the ground. When was the last time you saw a guard on the street on the beat?" was the question from Cllr Vinny McCormack during a discussion on policing at Monday's meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District.

Before Christmas, Cllr Frankie Keena spoke publicly about waiting 80 minutes for Gardai to arrive at the scene of an incident of public disorder and criminal damage in the centre of Athlone.

"Since I spoke about that incident, it's amazing the amount of people who contacted me about similar experiences and similar delays with the response from Gardai," Cllr Keena said.

"One particular person, on the west side of town, came home from town and found individuals in his house. When he came in, they went out the back door.

"He rang the Gardai, and two hours later the Gardai came to his house. This is not good enough, and we need immediate action on it."

Cllr McCormack said there was "a notable increase" in burglaries, property thefts and anti-social behaviour in Moate before Christmas, and this had left the victims and the community at large upset and fearful.

For calls from areas such as Moate or Ballymore, it was rare that a Garda car would be readily available, the Fianna Fáil councillor said.

He pointed out that, on the Moate Garda Station website, the station was listed as being open only on Tuesdays and Fridays, for two hours each day, and this did not chime with the area being held up as "a star pupil" for the Government's 'Town Centre First' regeneration policy.

"A key part of the ‘Town Centre First’ policy should be a Garda presence," he stated.

The local councillors stressed that they were not criticising individual Gardai, who were doing their best in the circumstances, but they said that the problem stemmed from insufficient Garda resources being made available to cover Athlone and South Westmeath.

The local district sent a letter in December to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, in which he was asked to come to Athlone to discuss the recent Garda operational changes which mean there's no longer a Superintendent, with specific responsibility for policing of the town, based in Athlone.

At Monday's meeting, councillors were told that no reply to their letter had been received from Commissioner Harris, and Cllr Keena said this was "disgraceful," given that "this particular issue is escalating".

He said he had been told that there was only one Garda car available in Athlone on certain times at weekends.

Yet again, the council was talking about lack of numbers and investment in relation to Gardaí, a frustrated Cllr Aengus O’Rourke remarked, saying it was depressing that the same issue was coming up at meeting after meeting.

"We've had a dilution in status of the (Athlone) Garda barracks, and a lack of numbers on the ground.

"I think we need to pursue (a meeting with) the Commissioner and in our next letter we should also give the option of us going to see him, if there's a problem with him coming to see us."

Cllr Liam McDaniel agreed that resourcing was the issue, saying Kilbeggan shared a guard with Moate, and there was a fear in rural areas as a result of the lack of presence.

He said that when people in rural areas try to ring the guards in Athlone, their calls now end up getting diverted to a Garda call centre in Waterford.

If there are no guards in Athlone, there are none in South Westmeath as a result, remarked Fine Gael's Tom Farrell, who said "the human element" had gone out of policing. He wanted to see Gardaí back on the beat again.

During the discussion, it was agreed that the district would again write to Commissioner Harris to reiterate its request for a meeting in Athlone or elsewhere.

It was also agreed that the letter requesting a meeting would be sent to Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Chief Superintendent John Dollard, who is based in Navan and has overall responsibility for the policing of the Meath-Westmeath Garda Division.

Cllr Paul Hogan suggested that, in the event Drew Harris would not meet with the councillors, a vote of no confidence in him should be brought forward at the next meeting of the local Joint Policing Committee.