Gardai to rent premises in Ballybane

Date Published: 18-May-2008

An Garda Síochána is to rent a premises in Ballybane to provide people with a location to have direct contact with community gardaí.

Superintendent Tom Curley said: “We have a unit in ongoing contact with the City Council, which is in a position to rent a premises to us in the Ballybane area. “The premises will serve as an accessible base for our community gardaí so it will not be necessary for people in the locality to go into the city with their queries.”

The Office of Public Works is carrying out some modifications on the building, which is on the Castle Park Road, near the John Paul Centre. Supt Curley expects the project to be up and running in the next week.

Chief Superintendent Dónall Ó Cualáin said that community policing was a two-way street, and the scheme was integral to making our communities good places to live in. “Extending the number of community gardaí is a high priority,” he said, “but every garda who puts on a uniform is actually a community garda.

“Participation in the community is an excellent way of getting back information from those areas. I know the value of having gardaí at matches, at youth initiatives or training hurling or football teams when they’re off-duty.”

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