New Garda fleet to tackle ‘scourge’ of criminal gangs

More than 250 new Garda vehicles will take to Ireland’s motorways in a bid to tackle the “scourge” of criminal gangs and rural crime.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald on Tuesday announced an allocation of €5.3 million to buy “high powered” cars by the end of the year.

“The gardaí have all the necessary tools at their disposal to tackle the scourge of highly-mobile criminal gangs and to disrupt crime, particularly burglaries, across both rural and urban communities,” she said.

Ms Fitzgerald said the 260 new cars will help gardaí be more visible and responsive in their patrols of motorways and rural communities.

She said the fleet will include marked and unmarked patrol cars, vehicles for surveillance and covert operations, motorbikes for high visibility road policing and cars for public order policing.

Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has said the fleet will deter criminals and help gardaí respond to incidents quickly.

“One of the worries of recent times is Dublin-based gangs using high-speed cars themselves reaching out on the motorway network reaching into rural communities,” he said.

“The idea that you’d have very visible high-profile (Garda) cars manning our motorways, manning roads off the motorways, not only is a deterrent to anybody who might think they can get away with it but also in a position to respond very quickly to any incident that happens.”

Recruitment

Ms Fitzgerald said the new Garda recruitment campaign would be announced shortly, which will send 600 trainees to go to Templemore in Co Tipperary.

The former head of the Garda Traffic Corps who went on to work for the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, John O’Brien, said motorway patrolling was part of a much “bigger plan”.

“We need the numbers. There’s about 2,000 less guards now than there was in 2009, you need a budget that goes with that,” he said.

Former chief supt O’Brien told the RTE’s Morning Ireland people in rural areas wanted to see a “friendly garda face” at the end of their road.

“We simply do need local guards who are familiar with the community and the community is familiar with them,” he said.

“Because there is an enormous connection between the ordinary guards and the people in the community.

“ Young guards in the Garda Síochana feel incredibly frustrated in the situation in which they find themselves,” he said.