A CALL for the establishment of a garda dog unit in Donegal has been renewed.
The issue was tabled at yesterday’s meeting of the Local Community Safety Partnership by Councillor Michael McClafferty, who has long campaigned on the issue.
Cllr McClafferty asked if the group could write to the Garda Commissioner to ask for the establishment of a dog unit for Donegal.
The independent councillor said this would help to tackle the issue of drugs in the county.
Trained dogs can be utilised in a wide variety of policing tasks including tracking humans, public order control and drug and explosive detection.
The Garda Dog unit is based centrally in Dublin, with regional units in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Monaghan.
It was recently revealed, despite many believing work was underway, that there were no plans in place for a dog unit in the Donegal.
Cathaoirleach of the LCSP, Gerry McMonagle, said that they would write to commissioner on the issue again.
During the discussion, Cllr McClafferty also raised concerns over the pace in which gardaí are training dogs for the role nationally.
He told the meeting that that one dog was in training for a posting somewhere within the country, but this will not progress as the dog failed their exams.
Cllr McClafferty stressed that more than one dog should be in training at a time.