Sinn Féin’s Seán Crowe TD has called on Minister Alan Shatter to “stop spinning yarns and passing the buck” back to the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan and his officers over Garda cuts and closures. Crowe said  that the cuts are damaging  Garda  morale and impacting directly on communities.
He was speaking after hearing from Minister Shatter that station closures and other cutbacks are “a matter for the Garda Commissioner and Senior Gardaí”.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“Across the State, the impact of Garda cutbacks is plain to see with Garda stations closing, Garda officers retiring in increasing numbers and  basic equipment like Garda vehicles not being replaced.
“Yet every time the Minister is challenged, he responds with catch phrases like ‘rationalisation’ or ‘smart policing’. It isn’t rational or smart to sap the morale of Gardaí at the front line. It isn’t rational or smart to fundamentally undermine the partnership between Gardaí and local communities”

“There is an increasing dread acrossl Ireland about what cutbacks are coming next. I understand that Minister Shatter will soon confirm the closure of dozens more Garda stations across the State. That means that more rural communities and some urban will be abandoned to ‘smart policing’ from a long distance and lose that critically important overt presence on the ground”.

“The Garda Representative Association which represents frontline officers in the State has appealed to the Government not to proceed with these closures, revealing that keeping many of these stations open costs around €3,000 per year. They have also revealed that since 2009, 560 vehicles have been removed from frontline units.
So from rank and file Garda, we are getting the truth and from the Minister,we are getting  more yarns and spin. Meanwhile, the damage is serious and the vital relationship between the Garda Authorities and the communities they serve is being severely undermined on a daily basis.”