Extra Gardaí needed to tackle cocaine crisis

An additional 40 gardaí are urgently required to tackle the ‘blizzard’ of cocaine that’s risking the lives of young people in County Galway.

That’s according to Fianna Fáil Deputy Anne Rabbitte, who said this week that the scourge of underage drinking and drug usage required a ‘zero tolerance’ approach – and the only way to enforce that was to increase the number of gardaí on the streets.

Garda numbers in the county had been depleted due to an increase in the number of specialist units set up in the Divisional Headquarters at Murrough in Galway City, she said.

“Murrough is becoming a big animal. The Galway Division needs new entrants and it needs people with experience to replace gardaí who have been promoted or retired.

“When the Special Protective Unit for sexual assault cases was set up [in Murrough], there were 13 people put into that and they have been taken from the county, and never replaced,” said Deputy Rabbitte.

Deputy Rabbitte said the shortage of gardaí was stark when you looked at the vast area of South Galway that was covered by just three members of the force.

At times, just two gardaí in a patrol car and one in Loughrea station were expected to provide adequate cover to an area that spans from the bridge in Portumna to the coast in Kinvara, a 45 minute drive, and over to Craughwell, taking in both Gort and Loughrea, said the Portumna-based TD.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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