THE Donegal Joint Policing Committee (JPC) has written to the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, asking that Donegal be reinstated as a stand-alone Garda Division.
The letter which outlines the committee’s concerns regarding the difficulties being posed by the county’s amalgamation with Sligo and Leitrim.
A review is also currently underway into the impact of the restructure of the Division.
The restructuring into a new ‘super division’ has been a contentious topic from when it was first muted in 2019 and the need for a stand-alone Garda division has been the long-standing position of the JPC, said Councillor Gerry McMonagle, Chairperson of the JPC.
“I had met with the commissioner on a number of occasions and relayed that opinion to him but unfortunately we were amalgamated with Sligo and Leitrim. Since then there are further concerns being raised by the public, the Gardaí and members of the JPC that Donegal is definitely losing out,” Cllr McMonagle said.
Before the merge Donegal was already under pressure due to lack of Garda resources and vehicles, he added.
Councillor McMonagle explained how the restructuring did not take into account the unique geographic make-up of the county.
“We have sprawling rural areas, 97 per cent of our border is with the six counties, we have islands off our coast and large ports to police – the resources we have are not adequate and it is clearly not working,” he stressed.
Councillor McMonagle also highlighted that despite the fact that there are 448 Gardaí in the county, 64 of whom are civilian staff this does not reflect the amount of Gardaí on the ground.
“That doesn’t take into account the roster situation they have in place, the annual leave and sick leave – so you don’t have 448 Gardaí every single day,” he said.
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