Galway Gardaí have to borrow ‘paddy wagon’ from Mayo

 The number of vehicles available to Gardaí in Galway has become so depleted that the only ‘paddy wagon’ in the city has been borrowed from Co Mayo for the past three weeks.

 Members of the force have had to borrow the vehicle from Westport since the city’s last remaining Garda van was decommissioned within the past month.

Confirmation that there is only one van to serve the entire city comes just two weeks after it was confirmed in the Dáil that the number of Garda vehicles in Galway has declined by 37% in just three years.

Cllr Donal Lyons (Independent) called for an immediate upgrade of the fleet after expressing shock that there are now just five vehicles at the disposal of Salthill Garda Station – and one of those is on the Aran Islands.

“I have asked Deputy Noel Grealish to raise this matter in the Dáil again, because I find it incredible that there could be only five Garda cars for the entire area covered by Salthill,” Cllr Lyons told the Sentinel yesterday.

In a Dáil reply to Deputy Noel Grealish (Independent), Minister for Justice Alan Shatter confirmed that there were almost 30 fewer vehicles available to Gardaí in Galway West than three years ago.

Minister Shatter revealed that there were just 49 vehicles available to members of the force in the division at the end of January compared to 77 in 2011.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel