Extra patrol cars and longer shifts used to cope with effects of action

It was not the most inspiring start. The fresh-faced probationer garda at the front gate of Dublin's Harcourt Street Garda HQ first confused this reporter's name with another person's when ringing through to reception, and then forgot whom I was looking for.

His apologetic smile said it all: "It's blue flu day; what more can you expect?"

Inside, Supt Pat Quinn, who oversees the city's control centre, was eager to dispel any worries that services had been compromised by yesterday's "sick day".

"It's really not that different to any ordinary day. The volume of incidents is on a par with normal and we've sufficient staff to deal with them," he said.

The protest, however, did require major staffing rearrangements. The control room - which co-ordinates responses for Dublin's six Garda divisions - is run normally by one inspector, two sergeants and up to 18 gardai at any one time. Yesterday, it was staffed by three inspectors, six sergeants and five probationary gardai, working on 12-hour instead of eight-hour shifts.

Despite the fact that many of the gardai had to "double up" and deal with two divisions instead of one, they seemed to be coping well. However, there were occasional signs of strain.

"Is that a larceny of a purse or An Post?" the probationary garda, acting as dispatching officer for both north and south inner city, was asked. Before he had time to answer, another call came through to his desk.

By 2.30 p.m., 796 calls had been made to the control room. On average 1,500 are received each day.

Among them yesterday were a series of bogus calls describing robberies in Ballymun, including a fabricated break-in.

The majority of calls, however, related to activated alarms. Some had not received a Garda response for over an hour, which was not unusual, said Supt Quinn.

As part of the contingency plan, more patrol cars had been made available to respond to possible street crime. "The idea was to ensure that we could respond very quickly if anything big happened," said Supt Quinn.

He looked admiringly at the computer monitor, which showed that in the eastern region, covering the area from Merrion Gates to Dundrum to Greystones, some 13 cars were available for dispatch. "I don't think we've ever had that many cars out. Normally we've only one or two."

He was later joined by an inspector who had returned from the scene of a handbag snatch at Cathal Brugha Street after which a number of youths were arrested.

"They didn't know what was happening to them," said the inspector gleefully. "Before they knew it, they were surrounded by superintendents and plain clothes inspectors backed up by armed gardai in cars. I've never seen so many police in my life."

Listening to the report, Supt Quinn mused whether such success might spell the end of desk work for high-ranking gardai. "I hope the public won't be expecting this kind of service every day," he joked. "If it keeps going like this, we'll all be out of a job."