Gardai forced to work in third world conditions

Paul Neilan

An independent report on Bailieborough Garda Station, seen by The Anglo-Celt, has returned a damning verdict of gardaí and staff having to operate in “Third World”, “hazardous” conditions that “breach station security”.
The district headquarters has long been a hindrance to policing in the district, which has investigations ongoing into many high-profile crimes - including murder investigations.
There have been calls to renovate or altogether move the headquarters from gardaí and TDs, but the independent report on the station, carried out by engineer and design consultants Michael Reilly & Associates, highlights a litany of major problems and concludes the building is beyond salvaging.
The report says the station is hazardous to staff and recommends a new site, rather than renovating, such are the depth of the problems at the Barrack Street station.
The report was addressed to PJ Stone, the general secretary of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), the union for rank and file gardaí.

‘RIC barracks from 1800s’
“The existing station consists of a two-storey stone structure most likely constructed as an RIC barracks in the early 1800s,” the report outlines. 
“Little has been done to modernise the station except sub-divisions of rooms since its initial construction.”
Even the location of the station is a problem: “At busy times in the town the street outside the station is nearly always choked with traffic, which effectively means that response times for gardaí answering emergency calls is determined by the degree of congestion in the town.”

It wastes no time in saying the station is “too small to safely cater for a fraction of its present workforce” and, more troublingly, that “security is unavoidably compromised” because doors are left open due to the traffic of staff between the rear prefab and the station.

Toilets
“The toilet facilities are effectively Third World... the only disabled toilet in the station is in the detective’s office and effectively unavailable to the public...
“The toilets in the two cells are merely holes in the floors covered with stainless steel which have to be continually cleaned by gardaí once the cells are in use.
“The smell from both these cell toilets permeates through the main office and has to be endured constantly by the radio operator and duty office who both have to remain at their posts continually while on duty.”
It goes on to say that because the canteen is in the other building the radio operator and duty officer have to eat at their desks and that in the summer the disinfectant is constantly needed to combat the stink from the cells.
Worse again, the report says, “[is that] the most critical area of concern in relation to building control is in relation to fire safety... there are no fire escapes from the first floor of either the original building or the prefab”.
“The main building and the prefab are effectively fire traps and both would be closed down and the owners subjected to criminal prosecution if used in private enterprise... there are serious breaches of nearly every section of building regulations, any one of which would in normal circumstances make this building unfit for the purpose for which it is being used.
“In essence, this building could be effectively closed down at any time by the Fire Chief or the HSE on a number of serious breaches,” it says.

Hazardous cells
There are two “antiquated” cells separated by a narrow vestibule in which there is a sink, bearing the scars of a recent violent incident.
“Due to the cell layout and narrow confines of the vestibule it can be extremely hazardous both to arresting gardaí and prisoner to incarcerate violent prisoners... the sink which serves as a washing facility for the cells bears testimony to a recent violent scene involving a prisoner who went berserk...
“On court days [from Virginia District Court] the cell accommodations are completely inadequate, especially when having to segregate and differentiate between violent and non-violent prisoners, of mixed sexes, persons of differing sexual preference and of different ethnic backgrounds... On court days the toilets continually block up and the smell of faeces permeates the entire station.”
Almost every area of the station is criticised in the report. The canteen serves six out of 50, for example, the immigration room is so poorly ventilated that to work without headaches, interviews are conducted with the fire door open - the queue stretches along the street outside. This situation is a breach of station security.

Major incidents
Changing rooms are equally pitiful in dimension with the male room on the first floor of the prefab having just a single toilet and shower. The female changing rooms, also with one shower and toilet, make it “virtually impossible” to change in them due to the confined space.
Storage areas represent such a fire hazard that “disastrous consequences” are mentioned, the inspector’s office has “25% of the floor space ideally it should have”, as does the sergeants’ office, the doctor’s room doubles as a store area and is “un-ventilated”, the two cells also have to be used by the Traffic Corps but incredibly the report also mentions that the ‘major incident room’ is so inadequate that “if a major incident occurred in Bailieborough, gardaí would have to hire a function room in a local hotel or hire in port-a-cabins just to have enough space to meet together to handle the crisis”.
“This option is no longer viable in the fight against organised crime,” it notes.
In his recommendation, Mr Reilly, when calling for a new station on a green field site, says that “working in such an environment is not only potentially dangerous it is also continually hazardous” and that the site is too small to be adequately expanded for the 50-odd staff, covering the 357 square miles of a district on a “24/7/365” basis. However, the last new-build Garda station in the county, Cavan Town, was commissioned as far back as 1989 and was not finished until 1991.

“The main building and the prefab are effectively fire traps and both would be closed down and the owners subjected to criminal prosecution if used in private enterprise.”

The Garda Representatives Association's James Morrisroe: “The report highlights the ambivalent detached attitude of successive governments, through good economic times and bad, towards conditions and resources allocated to frontline garda in their increasingly difficult fight against serious criminal activity in rural Ireland.

“Gardaí on the ground have been highlighting the deplorable conditions they have to work under in Bailieboro Garda station for a long number of years and indeed a previous scathing GRA accommodation sub committee report as far back as 2007 stated that the only solution was to vacate immediately the premises. Is this what the gardaí are going to have to do to be listened to because at this stage they are exasperated with the pre-historic and downright dangerous facilities that they are expected to carry out a modern police service in.”

FG Joe O’Reily TD, Bailieborough native, says he has been asking for a new station since 2011: “The station has fallen into ill repair and is unable to manage with an increasing volume of work. Since I was elected to the Dáil in 2011, I have missed no opportunity to make the case for a new station. I was in contact directly, with the then Minister, Alan Shatter TD, on a number of occasions and I have met the present Minister, Frances Fitzgerald TD, on the issue a number of times also. The successful completion of a new Garda Station for Bailieborough is a top priority with me and will remain so until success is achieved.”

Justice Department response to Brendan Smith TD and Anglo-Celt queries (same answer): “The programme of replacement and refurbishment of Garda accommodation is based on requirements which are established by An Garda Síochána. The programme is advanced in close co-operation with the Office of Public Works, which has responsibility for capital expenditure in this area.”