Gardaí are being forced to leave a west Cork town unpoliced at weekends due to a lack of resources, it was claimed today.
The two officers on duty in Dunmanway have to bring people arrested for public offences to another station 15 miles away because their own rat-infested station was shut down two years ago.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said its members were very frustrated with the lack of resources.
"There could be up to between 1,500 and 2,000 people in Dunmanway on a busy Saturday night but if you have an arrest for a public order offence, you have to travel to Clonakilty. You're away for an hour or an hour and a half and there's no gardaí in Dunmanway," said local representative Garda Pat O'Sullivan.
In the last month, a can of petrol was used to set fire to the rear of the town's temporary station, a terraced house, in a suspected arson attack.
It came in the wake of the burning out of a squad car 12 months ago and a series of serious assaults on local officers, which led to two of them being discharged from the force on medical grounds "It is a shocking example of the neglect which gardaí and local people in this town suffer.
An increase in garda staffing levels here would make an important difference," said Garda O'Sullivan.
The station has lost more resources due to the closure of two garda sub-stations in the nearby villages of Ballygurteen and Drinagh.
The members based there retired and were never replaced. Mr O'Sullivan said that successive governments had failed to upgrade Dunmanway's run-down station for more than 25 years. "There hasn't been a blade of grass cut for accommodation or one cent going over to facilitate it.
GRA President Dermot O'Donnell said the delay in providing a new station for Dunmanway highlighted the Government's approach to garda resourcing.
"This government is very good at rhetoric but very poor on delivery. . . . Gardaí and the people of Dunmanway need movement on this important issue now."
PA