Gardaí have not been ‘lost’ to the division – senior cop
A senior garda has challenged published figures purporting there to be 31 less officers assigned to the Cavan Town station by the end of 2024 compared to the start of last year.
The detail was contained within figures published by the Department of Justice last week, showing 12 of the country's 22 garda divisions experienced a decrease in the number of gardaí over the course of 2024. This was despite overall numbers in the force increasing by 1.4% for the same 12 month period.
The newly configured Louth/Cavan/Monaghan division appeared to be one of the worst impacted, along with Waterford.
Speaking to The Anglo-Celt, Superintendent John Callanan was “adamant” that there is “an issue regarding those figures (31)”.
“Those figures should be viewed from the perspective of personnel moving to the surrounding areas and still serving the people of County Cavan,” he explained.
“Cavan Town may be down members but that is proportional to the increase in other stations across the county. For example, Blacklion Garda Station has gone from one garda to four.”
The local Superintendent emphasised that gardaí haven’t been lost to the wider division either and, since the new operating model began, there has been “no reassignment” of members.
“They stayed in the stations but the governance around them changed,” he states. “An example of this is community engagement, which is under the supervision of the Superintendent… and that’s me.
“The Detective Superintendent in Bailieboro has responsibility for detective members so, there has been a change in management structures only.
“The Cavan policing numbers are as close to 2023 figures as possible and it’s not the case that 31 gardaí are gone from Cavan Town Garda Station.”
He further highlighted that the figure for Cavan Garda Station also does not take account of regional personnel assisting gardaí and based permanently at Cavan Garda Station.
Meanwhile, according to the Department’s figures, overall, the number of frontline gardaí across all 560 garda stations nationwide fell from 12,045 to 11,928 - a decrease of 117 or one per cent in staffing levels.
The document also shows the strength of An Garda Síochána grew over the same timeframe with a net increase of 193 gardaí bringing the total numbers to 14,191 - an increase of 1.4%.