Extra resourcing for Cavan gardaí highlighted

The need for more gardaí stationed in rural areas, the roll-out of long-promised community CCTV, and more garda patrol vehicles were all discussed in a wide-ranging debate at the February monthly meeting of Cavan County Council.

Independent Brendan Fay, who tabled a motion at meeting in the Lavey Inn last week, pointed to one local garda station, which once had five sergeants assigned to it, where “now there are none”.

In another town, he said there are a half a dozen guards stationed and only one patrol car between them.

Cllr Fay went on to criticise the new policing model/territory that came into effect at the start of December 2023 whereby a garda on patrol in Lacken or Cavan could be called to deal with a matter on the Cavan-Meath border.

According to the most recently published figures, there were 718 garda members assigned to Louth/Cavan/Monaghan Division at the end of 2024. This is up from just over 700 five months ago, though more than half of that number were assigned specifically to Ardee, Drogheda and Dundalk.

It was an “impossible” system to operate said Cllr Fay, suggesting also that the new three county divisional structure considerably weakened Cavan’s ability to deal with criminal matters.

Linked to that, he feels, is the continued stalemate over who will take responsibility for the management of community-based CCTV systems.

Following the lead of Ballinagh, the towns of Ballyjamesduff, Belturbet and Ballyconnell were all due to get cameras installed as far back as September 2023.

The initiative, for which grants of up to €40,000 were available from the Department of Justice, has been tied up in legislative and data protection red tape ever since it was first proposed nationally back in 2018.

It was hoped that the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022 that extends Garda powers to use CCTV to help prevent crime and prosecute those involved in criminal activity may have eased the matter, but to no avail.

More than 50 community CCTV systems have been approved nationally, to a value of almost €1 million, and grants are still being offered said Cllr Fay.

“Why?” he asked, with no outlet for the funding to be spent. It is only “lip service” without delivery.

Asking the council to write to the Minister and to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris for an update on the matter, Cllr Fay said: “We need to get this up and running.”

Kilnaleck Garda Station

Fine Gael’s Trevor Smith seconded the motion. He flagged how, prior to Christmas, Kilnaleck Garda Station was set to close to the public only for a public outcry and an eventual compromise.

A meeting took place between Superintendent for Cavan, John Callanan, and the Kilnaleck Development Association, which heard that two specialist units are currently stationed at the premises. However, an agreement reached to continue to retain public-facing services at scheduled times.

Sinn Féin’s Damien Brady said the CCTV issue was “long-running”.

“There was no reason,” he said, why the current impasse could not be lifted and CCTV supplied to towns. The natural home for the system is at the local garda station, he feels.

“Ballyconnell was at an advanced stage, and Belturbet was not far behind. We’re still waiting.”

Fianna Fáil’s Clifford Kelly agreed on the housing of the CCTV systems, though Chief Executive Eoin Doyle accepted that the whole situation remained in a “state of flux”.

What it boiled down to is who deals with administration, management and storage of the CCTV data from a GDPR perspective.

It will, he admitted, be a “significant burden” on the data holder.

“It should not be seen as a burden to be put in a garda station, they’ll be the ones using it anyway,” remarked Cllr Smith (FG).