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RURAL PARTS OF the country will be left without any garda patrols as decommissioned cars are not being replaced, an Opposition TD has warned.
Large numbers of marked patrol cars that have been decommissioned after reaching their mileage limits have not been replaced, according to figures obtained by Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley.
Eight patrol cars in Clare have been decommissioned and not replaced – leaving just 13 garda cars patrolling the entire county.
Of these 13 marked garda cars, 9 have clocked up between 250,000 and 293,000 kilometres, meaning they are on the brink of being decommissioned.
“This is a dangerous situation,” said Dooley. “This puts communities that are already isolated at further risk of increased crime”.
More patrol cars are due to be taken off the road within the next year and there is as yet no commitment to replace them.
“The visual nature of rural policing is particularly important,” said Dooley, the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Transport.
People feel safer knowing that gardaí are available to patrol their area and a visible garda presence dramatically reduces criminal activity.
“This raises more concerns about Minister Alan Shatter’s commitment to rural policing. He has already moved to shut a number of rural garda stations across the country and reduce Garda numbers in smaller communities,” said Dooley.
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Drive ur car 20 hrs a day on average til it clocks up 300ks and see how safe ud feel chasing after scumbags in a stolen car at 160-180 ks down back roads
Gardai were offered a bettr deal by bmw then toyota for new cars bit said they cudnt b seen to be drivin bmws in a recession so its not about vanity
I cant beloeve someone complained about two many alcohol testing chexkpoints, if it stops d drink driver who cud plow into ur family member im sure ud take d extra 2mins kn ur trip
Cnt blieve the idiocy in dis country at times
You may not remember this but their families do – http://www.independent.ie/national-news/inquiry-into-crash-deaths-of-gardai-in-10yearold-car-376624.html
I couldn care what a car looks like or how many km are on the clock as long as they are fit for purpose. And family salon cars are not fit for purpose in the gardai. Vast majority of police forces around the world have purpose kitted out vehicles.
Sure look at the UK, “police spec” bmws are standard, that means high performance and harder wearing brakes, gearbox, clutch, run flats, similar in America and Oz/NZ but include ridiculously large engines, so the police can respond safely and efficiently, deal with the problem and move on to the next, in Ireland? Sure get an oul white saloon and strap a blue light on the top! Tada! Garda car! Heard that about the BMW too, then skoda were winning it but Toyota gave a cheap deal
They are decommissioned because of health and safety. Once they hit a certain age/mileage/wear they are obliged to get rid of them. You can thank the unions for that.
Typical unions! Just because they hit a certain mileage doesn’t make them unsafe. If they are being looked after and checked over by a mechanic regularly anything dangerous about them will be picked up on im sure? It just doesn’t make sense
Nothing to do with unions. Car manufactures won’t guarantee that the car will function properly after 300k km. the cars are in bits cause they are normal salon cars been driven 24hrs a day (in city stations anyway). There not built for the job.
As for the poster saying bout bashed up cars. Where I work a week would not go by without one of the cars been rammed by stolen cars.
its actually the car manufacturer’s fault.
They’re out of warranty by 300k anyway, so who cares what the manufacturers say
@ Gavin so is it vanity or warranty??
@ Rachael, manufactures wont warranty the car after certain mileage for no other reason thatn to make you buy a new one, most people want new cars for vanity, thats why you see brand new crap cars driving around, its all about the number plate saying 12 D XXX
Why not keep driving them until they give up!
Id love to see how much the Gardai spend on car repairs every year. The amount of damaged garda cars i see driving around is insane, arnt they meant to be good drivers?
The cars the guards or robbers ?
I’ve a feeling the baddies might be responsible for a few of those dents Jamie.
Once the cars are in good working order, are safe and are regularly serviced I dont see the reason why they MUST replace them. Keep them on the road until they break down/give up.
because anything made of metal will in time give way to fatigue, its simple science my good man and quite dangerous.
As above no point driving them until they give up cos they will more than likely give up when being driven hard to go to help someone, reckon you’d like to be the passenger in a car that has a serious break down at around 100kph??
Are those figures correct 13 patrol cars in Clare ? with a lot of these cars used as taxis for family members going to & from the pub it doesn’t leave a lot for crime fighting.
Sorry to all those who thumbed down my comment but unfortunately I am speaking from experience but hey who gives a fu*k this is Ireland.
Jesus that’s bad, but why are they decomissioned when they reach a limit, company i work for have between 3 vans nearly 650,000miles between them, and there 07′s
Because the company you work for aren’t front line emergency services? Compare the Garda fleet to HSE or Fire & Rescue, when the vehicle is an emergency services one it has to be dependable 24/7, none of the 999 services should have to rely on equipment that will fail and kill or maim the responders. I’m very surprised with how callous posters on this article are
Maybe the rural aulfellas wont have to worry about getting nabbed for having a couple of pints and driving home to their isolated homes around Co. Claire now.
Jaysus.. How much does it cost to replace 8 cars?
200,000 euro
That’s just 8 in Clare. It’s alot more nationally.
for the govt minus all taxes about 9000 euro each car
@mick sure joe public doesn’t care if it’s only the lowly copper that’s killed on the way to help someone in need and no doubt if and when the unfit cars come off the road and kill someone the good old public will be only too happy to blame the Guards… Gardai put their lives on the line day in day out for their communities only to be scrutinised in every moment and have armchair experts insist they can do the job with less members less pay less equipment and now shagged out cars!! I’d preferably go home to my wife and kids, not crash a car not fit for purpose with half a million km’s!!!
/rant
Take some of the cars from galway. I got breath tested in five different areas in galway one night.
Why aren’t u running the country with intelligent contributions like this!! Cars are taken off the road for health and safety reasons. These cars are on the road 24/7 365 days a year and people want them to go until they pack it in? Maybe just maybe it’s unsafe to both drive a vehicle pushed to the limits the Gardai are pushed to and also to have the same unsafe vehicle on the public roads that you and I walk and drive on! The cars need to be replaced not driven to the end resulting in fatalities.
@Rachael, I have a VW camper from 1979, it’s has been regularly serviced and maintained, has gone round the clock and can still travel at 120km/h. All vehicles can work and be safe for this long if cared for properly. New cars are not about safety, it’s about vanity.
You drive your camper van at leisure, Garda cars are driven around the clock. It’s not about vanity, it’s about health and safety.
exactly Rachael, ive a background in Engineering and science and i can tell you that metal fatigue is quite dangerous. If a standard family saloon is driven hard 24/7 then it will in a short period begin to suffer and is extremely dangerous for the occupant. you cant compare this to a campervan.
@ Rachael, so I have a death wish?
@randy finally, some one qualified with and intelligent comment. @gavin what does that even mean? Every person in society has a death wish while them cars are kept on the road
Complete over reaction @ Randy, what is your background?
@Jamie Murphy: Are you for real? In another article someone like you would be giving out about never seeing Garda check points!! Typical Irish attitude! Never happy, complain about everything! Too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter!!
Ireland has falsified rule books since 1922 that allow opinions in law to cause harm to the Irish People and the Garda do nothing.
The Garda has done nothing about defrauding Social Welfare Recipients by using opinions since 1998.
Maybe its time we get a new police force that can use reading, writing and arithmetic to catch the real criminals of Ireland for their white collar crime.
What are you on about? Explanation and examples please, links to reputable sources if you have them.
@Aoife O’Connor: Just go to this website and use the extended search facility and it will give you all the details.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/home.html
You do have to love reading.
Hope this helps/
Right, @LoyalIrish Ctizen, I still don’t know what you think is wrong with Irish law, other than that it has something to do with “opinion”.
You’re making the claim, it’s on you to provide the evidence. And telling someone to read the entire statute book is not providing evidence, it’s derailling.
Since you didn’t bother to explain or give examples or even point me to a specific statute that supports your above statement, I have come to the conclusion that you don’t actually have a valid point and are a conspiracy-theorist wonk.
@Aoife O’Connor: You say “provide the evidence” are you sure I cannot use opinions to hide the evidence?
Opinions promote deceit, dishonesty, lies and crime.
Evidence promotes reading, writing, arithmetic and truth.
Should we run law with opinions or evidence?
@LoyalIrish Citizen
I see I was right. Good luck to you in your great fight against reality.
@Aoife O’Connor: There is no conspiracy in Ireland just people like you who cannot read, write and use arithmetic at a proficient level.
If you go to the website I detailed and spend a little time searching the records you will find that successive so called Irish Governments have introduced opinions into over 8300 times since 1922. Its not that difficult to understand that they have introduced opinions everywhere.
If you have some skills, which you are not demonstrating here, all you have to do is work out what an opinion is and how it impacts on law.
My ten year old grand nephew can work out when he has an opinion and when he does not, so why can’t you?
Nothing to do with Garda cars in county Clare, save your soap box for somewhere else!!
Aoife you are wasting your time. He is a freeman. He believes he should only answer to gods law and all statutes are only applicable if you agree to them. You’d have a better time banging your head against a wall than trying to argue with him. He isn’t connected to reality.
Aha! I was wondering if he was one of them. The complete lack of logic, knowledge and coherence was a clue alright!
Don’t worry, I know a hopeless case when I see one! :)
Don’t you mean the 3 R’s, “Reading, Riting and Rithmetic”?
You should probably brush up on them yourself as “… introduced opinions into over 8300 times since 1922.” makes no sense in English or mathematics.
@Keith Maguire: Believing anything belongs in religion only. The subject is opinions. Especially opinions in law.
@Paddy O’Reilly: Forgive me for the extra “into”. It still does not change the facts that people do not work out what opinions on comparison to evidence is in law. The rules are designed for good reasons and opinions will hide the evidence at all times, perverting the course of justice.
@Aoife O’Connor: You have demonstrated that you cannot work out opinions in law, that’s OK most people cannot.
Politicians, Judges, Barristers, Solicitors, Garda, Bankers, Developers etc also no not work out what opinions are in law. The dishonest in society have worked it out and are exploiting the characteristics for their financial benefit.
If you do not work out what opinions are in law how do you know what they are doing to you? How do you protect yourself?
You need to get your thinking cap on. Keep it simple, simplicity works.
Opinions in law hide the details and evidence of any situation. Why do you want people who can hide the details of crime interfering in your life?
Your point still has nothing to do with this article (apart from a tenuous link between Gardai and the use of opinion in Irish law), if you want to post random rants the feel free to do so on Twitter or Boards.ie.
When you first made your point, you did so in a vague and rant like manner and when Aoife asked for clarification, in an attempt to understand your argument, your proceeded to verbally abuse her and imply that she is illiterate.
Could you please provide a clear and concise example of how ‘opinion’ is being abused in the Irish legal system?
Here’s an example in favour of opinion: A drug dealer has amassed a fortune selling hard drugs to children. Garda can find no hard evidence linking the individual directly to the criminal activity thanks to his use of bribery and intimidation. A case it brought to court against the drug dealer by the CAB, where the judge finds, in the ‘opinion’ of the court the defendants assets are the product of criminal activity and are duly seized.
@Paddy O’Reilly: Nobody has verbally abused anybody here. If anybody is attempting to make people look illiterate it is you with comments.
Aoife O’Connor has demonstrated that she is old enough to work out opinions. The lady has also demonstrated that she can speak for herself and does not need your interference.
The lady might not understand law and how opinions are used to hide the details and evidence. The point of mentioning the statute book website is that she gains some experience of the rules. You cannot hope to understand the rules unless you read some.
You on the other have created a ridiculous example and demonstrated your limitations. Opinions in law over 8300 times since 1922 demonstrates that the establishment have been using opinions everywhere. Having a specific situation does not apply, if it is the rule books that have been falsified.
Rule books that have been falsified and police force that does not know is the problem. There are no criminals in Ireland for you cannot breach or comply with falsified rule books, they should no exist.
Thanks for the comments LoyalIrish Citizen, but as this is a piece about garda cars in rural areas, your comments are dragging the thread off-topic. Our Comments Policy asks users to stick to the topic at hand, so worth having a read of it before commenting again. Cheers.
@LoyalIrishCitizen: Sorry but in this example from above you clearly abused @Aoife O’Connor by accusing her of being illiterate “@Aoife O’Connor: There is no conspiracy in Ireland just people like you who cannot read, write and use arithmetic at a proficient level.”
The only one to display any limitations here is you, as you are unable to provide any example of opinions in Irish law, or indeed relate your point back to the decommissioning of Garda cars at 300,000Km.
@Christine Bohan: A police force that does not police or understand the rule books have been falsified has no use of a car in the first place.
The Garda are defunct in so many ways its a waste of time to expect them to get any resources, which my original comment says “Maybe its time we get a new police force that can use reading, writing and arithmetic to catch the real criminals of Ireland for their white collar crime.”
You do not need a car for white collar crime, but if they caught the real criminals they could afford a car or two.
I do consider I am on the subject and your level of knowledge or experience on the Garda skills might be he problem.
@loyalirish
sorry to tell you this but white collar crime is not the only crime been committed in this country. white collar crime of course can de detected, investigated etc from an office but the vast majority of crime that the ‘average’ guard deals with cannot be detected or investigated from a office.
What about those decommissioned state cars that have been mothballed and are due to be auctioned off? Can’t someone whack a coat of white paint and a few stickers on them?
Not a bad idea but then all the cops would be fighting over who gets to drive around in a Lexus or a Merc. :-)
That’s well and good until one of those get rammed or crashed and then they have a massive Mercedes or Audi bill to fix them. I suppose ford and Toyota are a lot cheaper to repair and maintain…
The report is disturbing, because it means that not alone are Garda stations closing in rural areas, but the presence of Gardai in patrol cars is now likely to be curtailed.
Irish Rural Link http://www.irishrurallink.ie have called on the Department of Justice to publicly state that rural communities are assured that these cutbacks do not in any way diminish policing practice in rural areas.
Closure of Garda stations coupled with reduced police presence sends out the worst possible message and is extremely worrying for vulnerable people in these areas
Seamus Boland
God Dave Doyle you’ve little to be worrying about!
@david; oh and do the cars not need fuel also? Where do you suppose they fill up? Maybe we should start a national campaign that Garda cars should only be filled up during the hours of darkness just so as people like you don’t the see the cars being stopped and maybe the Garda picking up a sandwich and tea while signing for the petrol!
Too many comments removed
Only one or two comments have been removed from this thread for breaking the Comments Policy – if you’re looking at this on one of the apps, it only displays the 50 most recent comments so that could be the reason you’re not seeing them all…
Not sure if they’re removed I think the app only shows the most recent comments if the list is too long? Just my assumption cos all the comments can still be seen on the website
Thank you for that although on your headline it has 61 comments yet at the start of the comments it states only 15.
Yeah, there’s 63 comments if you’re looking it at it on the website, as kyp154 said, but you’ll only see the most recent ones if you’re on one of the apps – hence the reason you’re only seeing 15. Sorry about that – it’s a technical glitch and one that we’re working on fixing.
Thanks for explanation.
if they stopped using them for going and getting their breakfast rolls and teabags, honestly every morning petrol stations are full of squad cars, I wish are tax payers money would buy me a car so I could drive to the garage and get my roll in the morning,s…..
Are Gardaí not entitled to eat or have a break during their shift? Those gaurds would have started at 6am. Why don’t you stick to the topic at hand which is how this govt. is eroding the policing nature of this country. All the city dwellers won’t worry about if their local station doesn’t have a patrol car cos they know that there will be one not that far away. Put yourself in the shoes of the person who lives in the back arse of nowhere and looking for Garda assistance. How are they to be assisted? Why don’t you use your wit to come up with a solution to that one instead of putting up comments on the eating habits of the people that you will be ringing when your in trouble.
Bikes…
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