News
Skeleton service in parts of county due to Garda cuts
Galway is in dire need of an injection of new Garda recruits following the revelation this week that only a skeleton police service is being provided in different parts of the county.
Fianna Fáil TD Anne Rabbitte said that she had reliably learned that at times over recent weeks in the Loughrea Garda District, there was only one Garda to service 10,000 people.
“This is the on-the-ground reality of what the cutbacks of the past five years have meant in terms of Garda resources to districts like Loughrea.
“Over 50 of this year’s new Garda recruits went to Ballymun in Dublin while in Galway over the past five years, the number of new recruits has been as low as four or five,” said Deputy Rabbitte.
She said that the situation had been particularly disturbing as regards the Loughrea district where at different times over recent weeks there were just four Gardai and two patrol cars to service a huge area.
The East Galway TD said the end result of this depletion of resources was that in the Loughrea district at different periods over recent weeks – with holidays and sick leave coming into play – there was only one Garda to service 10,000 head of population.
“In the case of a district like Loughrea, that Garda number at any one time should never dip below eight, but with any hardly any recruits coming our way, while others retire or are transferred, the numbers are just going down and down.
“It is my understanding that over the coming months, there will be a new bunch of recruits passing out in Templemore but it is an absolute imperative that Galway gets its required allocation from that class,” said Deputy Rabbitte.
She said that it had also come to her attention that Garda numbers were also below the required levels at both Salthill and Galway city districts, an issue that could also be addressed in the next distribution of recruits from Templemore.
“While I can understand the need for resources to be allocated to the Dublin area due to the ongoing gangland and drugs related problems, this should not be achieved at the expense of the regions.
“We are also in a situation where access to Galway and the West has never been as easy with the new motorways network – we need more Gardai on the beat and in cars across the county,” said Deputy Rabbitte.
Gardai declined to make any comment on the personnel issue on the basis that it was an operational issue but the Connacht Tribune has learned that there is ‘considerable unease’ in Garda management over the resources issue in the West.
Earlier this Summer, the Connacht Tribune revealed that a network of Garda stations across rural Galway did not have patrol cars available to them to carry out their day-to-day duties.
Sixteen in-service Garda sub-district stations, dotted across the county, did not have patrol cars available to them in early July of this year.
At the July meeting of the Co. Galway Garda Joint Policing Committee (JPC) meeting, Chief Supt. Tom Curley told members that he was doing everything possible to get more patrol cars for the rural stations.
He also stated that he was pressing for the replacement of Gardai who had either left the county due to promotions or had retired over recent years.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
