Renewed appeal for urgent review of Mayo policing model
A Mayo TD has issued an appeal to the new Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly to review the policing model in Mayo.
Deputy Paul Lawless has been a strong critic of the county being place in the same division as Roscommon and Longford.
He outlined: "This is a span from Blacksod Bay in the barony of Erris to the eastern side and the boundary with Longford, of over 200 km.
"It is a geographical region from one end to the other of more than three hours. It is no wonder that gardaí do not feel supported with regard to their management and so on.
"The subdistricts need to be reviewed as well. In my own area, if you look at east Mayo, Ballyhaunis is in the subdistrict of Ballina.
"If they have to detain a suspected criminal, they have to travel nearly an hour to bring that person into custody.
"That is unacceptable and it is causing a significant barrier to a proactive policing model that I think we all need.
"The other issue regards manpower. We have seen a significant reduction in the number of gardaí.
"I have been speaking to hundreds of gardaí over the last number of years, and right across every area and station of Mayo, the units have reduced by half. The regular units and stations in Mayo have reduced by half.
"Ten years ago, it was seven, eight, nine, ten gardaí per unit; now we are down to three or four.
"One of the big problems here relates to the new policing model.
"What has been done is the creation specialised units. It has pulled from regular units and moved those gardaí away from the front line and away from community policing. What was done is unsustainable.
"If a shopkeeper wanted to expand his offering and offer coffee, for example, that shopkeeper would have to do an analysis around the capacity and perhaps recruit new staff to make that offering, but that's not what has not done
"As a result, he has left the remaining few to pick up the pieces because he has not planned for this. That must be addressed by the new commissioner.
" It is really important that the minister starts to listen to the rank-and-file gardaí because it is really unacceptable and disrespectful that the previous minister and commissioner disregarded one of the most emphatic votes of no confidence in the history of An Garda Síochána.
"In fact, it was the most emphatic: over 98% of the garda rank and file voted a motion of no confidence, and the minister of the day and the commissioner shrugged their shoulders."