Friday, 10 Mar 2023
Updated / Friday, 10 Mar 2023 21:11
By Fergal O\u0027Brien
By Fergal O'Brien
A new Garda Station has opened to the public today on O'Connell Street
in Dublin city centre as part of efforts to tackle anti-social
behaviour in the area.
The facility, which will operate between 8am and 2am daily, is located
at 13A close to the north end of the capital’s main street.
Gardaí say the new station will provide a central, visible and
permanent location for gardaí in the north inner city centre.
It is also aimed at enhancing visibility and improving safety people in
the O’Connell Street area.
It will provide support to members of the force assigned to Operation
Citizen, which targets anti-social behaviour and public order incidents
in the city.
The building consists of a public reception area and interview rooms
for members of the public to report crime or seek assistance.
It will be staffed with one Sergeant and four gardaí.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris speaks to Minister for Justice Simon
Harris outside the new station
The station was officially opened today by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar,
the Minister for Justice Simon Harris and the Minister for Public
Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe along with the Garda
Commissioner Drew Harris.
While the station has no cells, the Commissioner has insisted the new
facility is a full station with a community policing focus.
He said there are "enough cells between the Bridewell and Store Street,
we're not short of cells here in the city centre."
"Detectives won't be working out of here, in effect this should be seen
as a community policing station and somewhere from where we mount our
community policing operations from."
Commissioner Harris also said there is "no lack of actual proactive
policing activity in this area, we just want to make sure that our
presence is permanent and seen to be permanent."
The Irish Tourism Assistance Service also has an office in the new
station to provide help to tourists who are the victims of crime.
Speaking at today's official opening, the Taoiseach defended the 2am
closing time of the new station and said there were a number of garda
stations in the area.
He said it was about having gardaí on the streets, but the timing of
opening hours was a matter for the Garda Commissioner.
Regarding the recruitment of gardaí, the Taoiseach said it was a
challenge as there was full employment in Ireland, but the plan was to
recruit 1,000 gardaí which would be enough to cover retirements.
The maximum entry age is 35 and the retirement age is 60 for gardaí.
Mr Varadkar said that was "under review" adding "it is not somebody's
numerical age it is the mental and physical fitness".
He said: "We are moving away from a set in stone retirement age. There
are issues to be dealt with here, one relates to pensions."
He added there would be proposal on that in the next few months.
Minister for Justice Simon Harris said the opening of a new garda
station on O'Connell Street is "a statement of intent."
Mr Harris said: "We open this very visible station, on this very
visible street to send a very important message to the people of
Ireland and particularly to the people in this community."
"We want to keep you safe and we want to make sure that you feel safe
as well."
Earlier, Minister Donohoe said in relation to the centre of Dublin,
that while he acknowledged that there are things that need to be done,
"I always do like to make the case for what is still great about our
city and there are many, many things that are great about our city."
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said that looking at places like
O'Connell Street and Henry Street "it's clearly not where we would want
it to be".
"We clearly do have difficulties with anti-social behaviour,
particularly in the evenings during the week and at points in the
weekend.
"But we need to do better in the city centre, which is why I think it
is an important moment in a city that I love, that I love living in,
that I'm proud to represent, that we're opening up a new garda station
in the heart of it."
Additional reporting: David Murphy