Councillor says gardaí should live where they are stationed

Call for gardaí to live in stationed community


Anton McNulty

Gardaí who are stationed in a certain town should also live in that town in an effort to curb anti-social behaviour according to a county councillor.
Swinford based councillor Joe Mellet raised the issue at yesterday’s meeting of Mayo County Council where he claimed that gardaí would be able to tackle anti-social behaviour if they lived in the community they served rather than 50 miles away.
His proposal was backed by Cllr Frank Durcan who said that when gardaí lived in the barracks they had their ‘finger on the pulse’ because they knew the area.
However, Cllr Richard Finn felt it was impossible to force a garda to live in an area because of the way gardaí are transferred from one area to another. Cllr Gerry Ginty said there were only a small number of gardaí on duty at any one time and called for an end to the garda embargo.
Cllr Gerry Murray added that with the cost of housing at the moment being so cheap, the Department of Justice should consider looking at buying houses and renting them to gardaí who are assigned to an area. He also said that man power could be redeployed to towns if the traffic corps was decommissioned. He said ordinary gardaí in Mayo could do the job which the traffic corps are doing at the moment as well as their normal duties.
County Manager, Peter Hynes said the matters would be referred to the Joint Policing Committee for discussion.