Majority not happy with how scandal-scarred Garda is run

PUBLIC confidence in the Garda management has been rocked so much by the recent scandals that only a third of us are happy with how the force is run, a new survey has revealed.

According to the latest Garda Public Attitudes Survey, published yesterday, most Irish people believe the force is less well-managed and provides a poorer service than it once did.

The study also highlights how crime fears are high, with half of those questioned, 51%, worried that they will be a victim of crime.

Just over one third, 37%, of people who took part in the survey, which covers the second quarter of the year, think the gardaí are well-managed. Only 36% said they provide a worldclass service.

Traditional faith in the ordinary garda on the beat is also on the wane. In the wake of revelations about false breath test figures, the whistleblower scandals, and financial irregularities at the Garda college in Templemore, the number of people who believe local gardaí are helpful, community-focused and progressive, has declined.

Despite this, the percentage of people who have a high to mid-level of trust in the force actually increased by 1% to 88%. And while 76% believe national crime is a ‘very serious’ or ‘serious’ problem, just 19% feel crime in their local area is a serious or very serious problem.

There is also a drop in the number of people who said they were victims of crime. The ‘victimisation’ rate fell by 1.2% from the first quarter and 3.3% from last year.

More people are reporting crime, the poll indicates, with 86% saying they reported their most recent crime incident, compared to 76% last year.

The survey, conducted by Amárach Research, comes as the Mail revealed the CSO has deferred the publication of crime statistics due to concerns about how gardaí record homicides.

A NEW survey reveals that just 37% of those polled believed the Garda Síochána was well managed. Similarly, only little over a third believed the force offered a world-class service, and there were also declines in the numbers who deemed gardaí to be friendly or helpful, focused on community, or modern and progressive.

The Garda Public Attitudes Survey, conducted by Amárach Research, is surely definitive proof, as if any more was needed, that confidence in the force is at an alltime low, and it shouts, very emphatically, that change at the top in the Phoenix Park is not just desired, but demanded. There must be no more obfuscation. The Government must clear out the senior management of the Garda and reinvent and reinvigorate it from top to bottom.