MINISTER FOR Justice Alan Shatter will this week formally confirm the closure of up to 60 Garda stations as part of cuts to the Garda budget.
The force is already under pressure from the expectation that at least 500 gardaí will leave by the end of the year, twice the normal annual figure. Cutbacks may also result in the abandoning of Operation Freeflow – the traffic calming measures introduced each year over the Christmas period.
Mr Shatter has received Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan’s budget report and will outline his own recommendations to the Cabinet at its meeting today to sign off on fiscal measures for 2012.
He will make a formal announcement on the number of closures and other cutbacks to the Garda budget on Wednesday or Thursday.
Speculation in recent months had put the closures at up to 200 stations, but Mr Callinan, while confirming closures, told the Oireachtas justice committee last week that it would not be that high.
Sinn Féin justice spokesman Jonathan O’Brien said “we are expecting between 50 and 60 closures”, as well as reduced opening hours for a number of stations. He added, however, that the biggest concern was that some stations open on a full-time basis would “close completely”.
Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Dara Calleary said the Government could not “lecture the Garda on cost management” when it had left the force €21 million short because of security for Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama’s visits. He said the Government had promised it would “cover the cost of security”. But it then failed to pay that amount and provide the necessary €21 million.
The total cost of security for the visits was €36 million.
