by Una Sinnott
An Athlone-based councillor has warned of a “crisis in policing”, warning that steps must be taken to bolster Garda numbers and provide the resources to tackle crime in the town.
Cllr Aengus O’Rourke’s comments came this week at a meeting of the Westmeath Joint Policing Committee, where he revealed that gardai had approached him privately asking him to highlight the situation.
Cllr O’Rourke, who is deputy mayor for the Athlone/Moate municipal district, said that just four gardai were on duty in Athlone at any one time, meaning there were “more security men on duty in the local shopping centre than there are gardai in the barracks”.
“We have a state of art barracks,” he said. “We have an impressive fleet of cars parked out on the street. But we have no-one to drive them and no-one to man our luxurious new barracks. It may shock people to know that regularly in Athlone barracks every week, we will only have four gardai on duty for a town of 20,000 people.
“Like most of you I live in Athlone, I have a business here, my kids go to school here and I’m a public representative for this town… so I’m a stakeholder in Athlone, I want the best for my town, our town.
“So, while it gives me no pleasure saying this, I feel I have no option – there are facts that need to be discussed and made public. There is a policing crisis in Athlone bordering on dysfunctional.”
Cllr O’Rourke highlighted the lack of community policing in the town, while he contended that the positioning of the regional drugs unit in Mullingar meant there was little deterrent for those involved in the drugs trade in Athlone.
“Drugs are rampaging through this town,” he warned. “I know the dealers, I know where they live, who their clients are, where they hang out. Most of the people in this room know, but they are allowed to carry on – why? We don’t have the resources in Athlone barracks to deal with it.”
The siting of the regional Garda headquarters in Mullingar meant that Athlone was the “poor relation” when it came to Garda resources, he warned.
“If you want to get promoted and go on to higher office in the Gardai, you have to get to Mullingar,” he said. “In Athlone our superintendents hardly get their feet under the table and a handle on the problems in the town when they are moved to Mullingar or Templemore. We seem to be a transitional posting – a back water the poor relation – there is no medium or long term plan for Athlone.”
Athlone was now a university town, and the business and tourism capital of the midlands, he said, “yet we have the policing complement of a village.”
Cllr O’Rourke said gardai had come to him asking him to highlight the desperate need for extra recruits in the town. “They came individually to my clinic, off duty and heartbroken at the state of affairs in the barracks,” he said.
The low Garda numbers regularly meant that if a car was needed to attend a road accident or other incident, just two gardai were in the station. The recent fire in Baylough, where three business premises were gutted earlier this month, required gardai to be brought in from Moate and Kilbeggan because there were not enough gardai available locally to close the road and secure the area.
“I will continue to speak out about this on behalf of the members of the gardai who came to me and on behalf of the people of Athlone,” Cllr O’Rourke said. “If I need to take this nationally and seek meetings with Drew Harris and Helen McEntee I will do it.”
Chief Superintendent Fergus Healy responded that he would be looking for as many new recruits as possible from the new complement of 800 expected to come out of Templemore this year.
