Garda says closing stations saved force €1.8m

The closure of almost 140 Garda stations between 2007 and 2014 did not result in more crime in the vicinity of the closed buildings, but freed up 64,000 officer-hours to help put “uniforms in the community”. That is according to the latest Garda statistics, which Assistant Garda Commissioner Jack Nolan said showed crimes such as burglary had fallen by 34 per cent in recent years.

Addressing the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the assistant commissioner said most burglaries were not committed by travelling criminals using the motorways to terrorise those in the countryside. He said the closure of Garda stations had resulted in a saving of just €1.8 million, but the most dramatic effect was the freeing up of "man hours" which would have had to be used opening the stations.

Gurchand Singh, the Garda’s chief statistical analyst, said quarterly research had shown that early last year 12 per cent of respondents were identified as victims of crime. By the third quarter of this year, the number had fallen to about 5 per cent. While 48 per cent of people said they did not expect to be victims of crime in their own community, some 83 per cent said they felt that in Ireland as a whole crime is “a serious problem”.

Victims of crime

Mr Singh said the statistics showed old people and rural residents were less likely to be victims of crime, but were often the most fearful and most traumatised if they became victims.

He said there was an irony in that those likely to be victims of crime were young men, who most often said they did not expect to be victims of crime.

Éamon Ó Cuív told the committee he believed that in local communities the prospect of having a garda resident in the community was more important than the building. He said resident gardaí would be more likely to be able to “tap the shoulder” of a parent when a youth was going “off the rails” and prevent crime form happening.

Danny Healy-Rae said people were making themselves vulnerable to crime by posting on Facebook and other social media that they would be "out in Dublin for the day" or putting up pictures of themselves "all togged out in Spain".

Earlier the Committee which is discussing “what it takes to sustain a viable rural community” heard it would not be cost-effective to dredge the Shannon so as to prevent flooding communities.