Garda force is in crisis

RURAL policing is in crisis. Today, in this newspaper, a garda reveals how manpower has been decimated in Donegal. There are often so few squad cars available that gardaí remain office-bound and there is a serious problem getting armed response units in place.

This is happening all over the country thanks to cuts. Two years into the Garda management crisis, the force is no nearer to the reform it so desperately needs and still months away from having a new commissioner who might initiate and oversee that reform.

The priority, clearly, is to fast-track the recruitment process and then for whoever gets the job to be given full support in creating a depoliticised Garda Síochána that restores the original and true function of its mandate – guarding the peace.