Little progress with Garda plan for Cavan Monaghan division

There’s no timeline for when the new operational plan for the local Garda division will come into force.

Commissioner Drew Harris announced the controversial plan in 2020, which will see the current Cavan-Monaghan Division merged with Louth. Overall it will result in the enlargement of garda divisions from the current 28 to 19.

In his monthly update to the Policing Authority, the Commissioner said a number of divisions will see the plan become operational this month and next month, including in Cork, Kerry, Galway and Limerick.

However, the local area is listed as taking a “Customised Interim Approach”, with no information on when it is expected to be in place.

The Garda Press Office has given no timeline and no information on the reason for the delay.

It did not respond when asked why Cavan, Monaghan and Louth are taking this approach.

However, it did outline what form the Louth/Cavan/Monaghan Division will take when complete.

It says there will be four functional areas, Community Engagement, Crime, Performance Assurance and Business Services. Each of which will be led by a superintendent. They are expected to be based in stations across the division.

When the plan was first announced, Louth/Cavan/Monaghan were listed as part of phase four with implementation expected to begin in October 2020.

It says work has taken place on the implementation of the ‘Business Services Functional Area’ with work taking place on “planning activities to support full implementation of the Business Services Functional Area, in line with other divisions”.

“Prior to this, the division had adopted a customised interim implementation approach. This approach enabled divisions to commence implementation of the Business Services processes on a district-by-district basis,” the spokesperson said.

The Business Services Functional Area will manage finance, HR and general administrative processes for the entire division and is led by an assistant principal. Senior gardaí say this will reduce the amount of administrative processes completed by frontline gardaí, allowing them to focus on their operational and community duties.

Work on the next phase, the implementation of the Community Engagement, Crime and Performance Assurance Functional Areas and the associated divisional amalgamation activities have not yet commenced in the Louth/Cavan/Monaghan area.

No timeline for further progress on the amalgamation has been given.

The spokesperson says the idea behind the changes is “to bring more gardaí to the frontline and to provide a greater focus on community policing based on local needs consistent with the objective of ‘keeping people safe’. The operating model will increase community engagement and access to a wider range of specialist services across the country.”

However, concerns were raised locally when the plan was first announced, particularly with regard to the overall size of the division.

Critics in particular pointed to the distance from Blacklion in west Cavan to Drogheda, Co Louth, which is earmarked to become the Divisional Headquarters and home to the local Chief Superintendent.