Senior garda: We will make the station fit for purpose

A SENIOR garda in Sligo has told the Sligo Weekender that “a huge amount of work” is continuing on Sligo Garda Station on Pearse Road to make it “fit for purpose”.

In light of the decision made more than a year ago that a new Sligo Garda Station would not be built, despite the securing of a site at Caltragh, Superintendent Mandy Gaynor said that the upgrading of the existing station was “a work in progress”.

She said: “There is a huge amount of work being done in the background to make the [present] station fit for purpose as it is. There is detailed engagement with our Estates Management section and the Office of Public Works as to how we can make Sligo Garda Station a good station to work in. It is a work in progress.” Commenting on the garda response to the coronavirus pandemic, she said the last 16 months and more had presented challenges on a personal and professional level for everyone, not least An Garda

Síochána: “Covid has been good and bad for everybody, it has been good for us in that it gave us an opportunity to increase our involvement in the community.

“We were always involved with the community and helping out in the background, we are not just a 'blue light' response service. We do a huge amount of community work with the elderly, with the young, the minorities in our community and always have done that, but Covid probably made it that little bit more public.

“It may be the case that people are genuinely not aware of the work being done in the background by An Garda Síochána and it was an opportunity to increase what we could do for people because of Covid.”

Supt Gaynor acknowledged how, on a personal level the pandemic has been very tough for people. “People have lost loved ones. From a personal and professional point of view I think it has been good and bad for everybody and I am very mindful of that and the losses families have endured.”