Navan Garda Station

Concerns over plan to merge Meath and Westmeath Garda divisions

ANN CASEY

Plans to merge the Meath Garda division with Westmeath has received an angry reaction in Meath where fears have been expressed for future garda resources in the county.
Amid claims that Meath is at crisis point regarding anti social behaviour the proposals have been described as "baffling" and "window dressing."
The new move would see the Meath division stretching from Laytown to Athlone - a distance of 162km and would also see just one Chief Superintendent for the two counties and possibly the moving of the divisional headquarters out of Meath.

The reorganisation is part of Garda Commissioner Drew Harris’s new model which aims to revamp how policing is delivered and managed at local and regional level.
A draft of the forthcoming Divisional Policing Model envisages cutting the number of Garda divisions from 28 to 19, with a similar reduction in the number of chief superintendents.
The move has been described as “baffling” by Deputy Shane Cassells who said the move will “undermine the force in Meath”.
Deputy Peadar Tóibín described the proposals as "fiercely frustrating" and "window dressing." 

"We are at crisis point in Meath with regards crime and anti-social behaviour. Towns and villages across the country are seeking significant increases of assaults and attacks. Drugs are common place in most towns and villages and theft and robberies are increasing in the countryside. 
"This has not happened by accident. Meath has the lowest number of Gardaí per capita in the country. We have had a serious reduction in community Garda and other resources. There is a significant lack of youth resources in our towns and villages.

"Mental health services are far less than adequate and residential drug rehabilitation are non existent. 
"We know that we need more resources and while there has been some increase in new Gardaí it is still not at the per capita level it was in 2009. Despite all of this we are told that we are going to have yet another reorganisation. The deck chairs are going to be shifted around again. We have just seen the same being announced for the health service," he said.
He said the Safer Meath Campaign will be organising a major public meeting  in the early autumn in order to build up the necessary pressure to ensure that Meath simply gets "what we are entitled to and that our streets are safe."

The news comes at a time when moves were being made by both Deputy Shane Cassells and Chief Superintendent Fergus Healy for the creation of a new Garda Divisional HQ in Navan.
Deputy Cassells has slammed the decision to stretch resources saying that they had just started to see a renewed effort of growing Garda numbers in Meath and that the focus on large urban centres as well as under resourced rural areas could get ‘diluted.’

“Over the past few years we have fought hard to battle back against the under-resourcing of the guards in Meath where numbers had fallen to the lowest in the country per head of population.
“We needed to grow the on-the-ground presence in places like Navan and Trim where the issue of drugs had become a real threat to society.
“Chief Superintendent Fergus Healy has done a fantastic job on making sure we got boots back on the ground and I’ve worked hard with him on advancing the case for a Garda divisional HQ for County Meath.

“Merging a county with a population of 200,000 people with another one makes no sense whatsoever and takes the policing focus away from our main centres.
“I can speak to Chief Superintendent Healy about the issues pertaining to our county whether it be drugs, crime or anti social behaviour. It’s a long way from Navan to Athlone and suddenly we will have people based outside our county who won’t know where Trimgate Street is. “We need a Meath division that can deal with Meath problems and diluting the area quite frankly undermines the force in our county," he concluded.