No manpower to reopen Bawnboy Station – Garda rep

The Garda representative for Cavan and Monaghan has asked where are the resources going to come from to reopen Bawnboy Garda Station.

Gda James Morrisroe, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) rep for this division, posed the question after the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan confirmed last week that the Garda Commissioner has earmarked Bawnboy as one of six Garda stations to be reopened nationally following a review.
Gda Morrisroe told The Anglo-Celt that it is “grand pinpointing these stations for opening but have they the resources to put into them?”
He continued: “You have Ballyconnell, which has been downgraded [from a District HQ] with reduced opening hours. Bawnboy is a substation of Ballyconnell. Where are the members going to come from to put into it?”
Gda Morrisroe claim that despite new garda recruits coming to Cavan and Monaghan in recent times, they are still not enough to keep apace with retirements in the force.
“We have up to 30 to 32 Garda retirements in the division since 2012 and we have only got roughly about the same number of probationary gardaí,” he outlined.
“The reason Bawnboy closed in the first place is that the member there retired. If that member had not retired, it would still be open. It is a bit laughable to say 'oh, we are reopening it because we closed it'. It was closed because of natural wastage and they did not have the member to put into it,” outlined the GRA representative.

 

No policing

“You look at Ballyconnell up to Swanlinbar and up to Blacklion, there is no policing there, that has been documented and well highlighted. I can talk till I’m blue in the face but it is down to resources,” continued a frustrated Gda Morrisroe.
“The human resources in Garda HQ in the Phoenix Park should be looking at that – they should say 'right, Bawnboy is opening, we will allocate two probationers to come from Templemore in the next phase, which will be two or three months time, put them into Cavan as it is the District Headquarters and then let two members out to Bawnboy'. That is the simple way of doing it,” suggested the garda.
 

Border policing

Taking a broader look at the policing of the general Border area, Gda Morrisroe pointed out that Clones Garda Station had around 52 members at one stage but there are only three members working out of that station now.
“That is ridiculous – don’t forget that Clones was a 24 hour station too and it was downgraded a number of years ago. The same is after happening to Ballyconnell and you have other stations in the Division as well, that I won’t name, that are struggling,” he claimed.
“That is the problem you now have in rural Ireland – you have a lot of stations closed and you have no garda coverage. Regardless of Brexit, there is not enough policing in Cavan and Monaghan,” contended Gda Morrisroe.
The garda rep further hit out at the 'Smart Policing' plan initiated by former Justice Minister Alan Shatter, which saw the closure of 130 Garda stations during the recession. He branded the plan “a complete and utter failure”.
 

No community engagement

“You have no community engagement – it is not the guards fault if they are running out to Scotstown or running from Cavan out to Blacklion – the local knowledge is not there,” explained Gda Morrisroe.
He further pointed out that a lot of the specialist units were wound down during the recession. “There was no drugs unit in Cavan or Monaghan – it was run down – so they had to set up a new drugs unit about six months ago. It has five members and a sergeant but they were taken off the frontline as well. You are trying to build a proper functioning police force from scratch,” said the GRA rep.
 

Fire fighting

Gda Morrisroe termed the current force in Cavan Monaghan more of a fire brigade service. He explained: “You are going from one call to another and you are covering vast areas. You are not getting to know the locals, you are not getting any community involvement.”
In conclusion, he's calling for more probationers to be allocated to the local division “so the likes of Ballyconnell [downgrading] won’t happen again and the likes of Bawnboy can be filled”.
Gda Morrisroe said that this would "boost morale" in the force locally and increase public confidence and security.
Meanwhile, the Garda Commissioner has written to the Office of Public Works to progress the reopening of Bawnboy Garda Station.
At a Joint Policing Committee (JPC) meeting last july, then Chief Superintendant of Cavan and Monaghan, Christopher Mangan, too said that the division needed more resources.
"If we were a company we'd be closing down, that's how stretched we are at the present time," he remarked at the public forum.
He admitting that at least 30 new members were needed if the force's current depleted numbers are to be rectified. At that time, he quoted a 28% reduction in numbers in the force in Monaghan and almost 20% in Cavan since 2010.