New Garda cars and recruits take to streets of the city

Garda Chief Superintendent Tom Curley has confirmed that five new recruits have begun working in the city.

The allocation was approved by Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan, after a request for more personnel was submitted by Chief Supt Curley earlier this year.

He confirmed the figure in response to questions from city councillor Pádraig Conneely.

The Fine Gael representative welcomed the new allocation and asked whether he was happy with the numbers of new recruits he received.

“Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt,” replied Chief Supt Curley.

Independent City Councillor Declan McDonnell wondered how many Garda posts in Galway remain unfilled, following retirements in recent years. Cllr Conneely advised him, not to be “looking at the negative side” and to look at the positive announcement of five Gardaí instead.

Meanwhile, Chief Supt Curley has also confirmed at the Galway City Joint Policing Committee meeting that the Galway Garda Division, which includes the city and county, has sufficient vehicles.

“I’ve never had as many cars as I have now,” he said, in response to queries from Donal Lyons.

The Independent city councillor said he was aware of two incidents in recent weeks in which Gardaí said they had ‘no car available’ when members of the public rang the local Garda station.

Cllr Lyons said his colleague, Mayor of the city, Noel Larkin, was on local radio recently complaining that Gardaí told him there was ‘no car available’ when he rang to inform them of caravans being moved onto a site on the east side of the city, illegally.

Cllr Lyons said in Salthill when Gardaí were alerted to the felling of mature trees between 10pm and 11pm, they said there was no car available.

Chief Supt Curley did not comment on the examples given but he said that Gardaí had to prioritise use of resources.

“There could be five or six cars gone to the one incident,” he said.

Cllr Lyons said he asked the question to assure the public.

“I don’t want it out there that there aren’t enough cars,” he added.