A snap survey of gardaí in Donegal - the county at the centre of official findings of corruption and poor management in the force - showed there were only 72 officers on duty last Saturday night. The weekend following July 12th is traditionally one of the busiest tourism periods in the county.
There is usually a sharp rise in visitors to the area from across the Border in Northern Ireland. The survey by the Donegal Democrat showed that at 10.30 p.m. last Saturday the county was policed by 72 officers from its 400-strong force. In the north-west of the county, from Glencolmcille to Fanad Head and including popular tourism and party spots in The Rosses and Gweedore, 13 gardaí were on duty.
HQ stations for the region are at Glenties and Milford where gardaí said the lack of resources restricted their ability to answer calls. They said it could easily take up to two hours for a squad car to answer a call.
Only one car was on duty in a large area of The Rosses which includes the busy fishing and holiday towns of Dungloe and Burtonport. The Garda Representative Association, representing rank-and-file gardaí, called for a "massive increase" in staffing levels in the county.
Local spokesman for the association, Garda Michael Boyce, said: "For districts like Glenties and Milford that have a widely spread rural geography, it just doesn't make sense to have staffing levels so low. You are talking about an area from Fanad Head to Glencolmcille - an area bigger than many counties in Ireland - being covered, apparently, by 13 gardaí."
Staffing levels last weekend in most of the rest of the county, which include the largest town, Letterkenny, and the seaside resorts of Buncrana in the north and Bundoran in the south, were considered by gardaí on duty to be "adequate".
Sources within the Garda force and officers' representative associations have conceded that morale is extremely poor following the findings of Mr Justice Morris.
In the interim report of his tribunal investigating allegations of wrongdoing by gardaí in Donegal he found there was corruption and mismanagement.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said that "even worse" was to come in future reports from the judge, who is still hearing evidence.