CALL FOR RESOURCES AS RAMELTON GARDA STATION CLOSES DURING OFFICE HOURS
written by Stephen Maguire March 25, 2015
A call has been made for extra Garda resources after the closure of Ramelton Garda station during office hours.
Ramelton is without a Garda station during the daytime.
Fianna Fáil TD Charlie McConlogue made the call to Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald to allocate additional resources to the station.
The station, which has two Gardai attached to it, has been forced to close during office hours, because of staffing issues.
Deputy McConalogue commented, "Ramelton is the largest town on the Fanad Peninsula with a population of well over 2,000 people and the fact that there are only two guards allocated to cover this population beggars belief.
"I have been contacted by a number of concerned constituents, who are worried that the Garda station has not been open during office hours and are fearful of a further downgrading of services. Residents are understandably worried about the cutbacks, which are impacting on policing standards in the town and surrounding areas.
"The loss of the community Gardai has been a feature of successive Ministers in this Government. Ramelton as well as many other towns across Donegal have lost a visible Garda presence as a result of Fine Gael's slash and burn approach to our force. Garda numbers have fallen dramatically since this Government came into office; falling from 476 officers across Donegal in 2007 to 404 at the end of last year.
"Ramelton is one of the many stations that are suffering as a result of these drastic culls. The Minister must allocate additional resources to the area to ensure that staffing levels can be increased so that the fears of the local community can be allayed, and consideration should be given to a review of the situation across the entire Donegal region".
CALL FOR RESOURCES AS RAMELTON GARDA STATION CLOSES DURING OFFICE HOURS was last modified: March 25th, 2015 by Stephen Maguire
Charlie McConalogueGARDA STAITONRAMLETON
Stephen Maguire is the co-founder of Donegal Daily. He has worked as a reporter for almost 30 years starting locally with the Donegal Peoples Press before moving to the Mirror Group. He continues to contribute daily to national media outlets including the Irish Times, RTE, the Irish Independent, Irish Sun, Irish Mirror, Irish Star, the Daily Mail and the Examiner.
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