The battle to save Co Leitrim’s garda stations looks set to step up a notch with the Minister for Justice confirming he wants more garda stations closed in a bid to get more gardai on the frontline.
Speaking at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors conference in Co Wexford on Monday night, Minister Shatter said he did not believe that 703 stations are needed in such a small country and he warned that more closures should be expected in 2013.
Thirty nine Garda stations around the country have already been closed or are facing closure as part of cutbacks in this year’s budget.
Locally, Kiltyclogher Garda Station closed last week and Drumkeerin Garda Station is expected to close shortly.
“The Garda Commissioner will, I expect next autumn, will be preparing his plan, his police plan for 2013,” said Minister Shatter at the conference.
“I expect it’s likely that there will be additional stations closed, to ensure that we use the resources in the most efficient manner we can to provide the best policing service we can and this is going to get more members of the force available for frontline policing.”
The news will come as a massive blow to campaigners who have been battling to save Drumkeerin’s station from closure. Over 900 signatures have already been collected on a petition to save the barracks from closure.
Drumkeerin garda station is relatively new and it is the only station which has been earmarked for closure operating with a sergeant and two gardai.
Speaking at last Monday’s Council meeting, Cllr Mary Bohan said she was incredibly disappointed by the response of Minister Shatter to correspondence from the Council on the closures.
She observed that Minister Shatter had emphasised the importance of developing a partnership between the gardai and the community in his letter to Leitrim County Council.
“Well this decision to close rural garda stations flies in the face of that,” she said.
She accused the Minister of “paying lip service” to the concerns raised by communities like Drumkeerin and pointed out that no explanation had ever been offered for the closure of garda stations in Co Leitrim.
Cllr Bohan also argued that any savings would be minimal as the largest outgoing was for garda salaries and these would still have to be paid as the gardai involved were going to be relocated elsewhere.
She called on the Chamber to support her proposal to seek a meeting with Minister Shatter on the issue.
“I’m think that Minister Shatter is totally out of touch with the constituency on this issue,” she said.
Her call was supported by the remaining councillors who agreed that, with rising crime rates, it was even more crucial to see rural garda stations remaining open.
Councillors also denounced the closure of Kiltyclogher and said that this had left the community in a very vulnerable position.
Turf cutters of Ireland invoke Easter Rising spirit in a row over peat bogs
It sounds like a modern day adaptation of a love story between ‘the untouchables’ of the Indian cast…
In events that might inspire an Irish dramatist, an unholy turf war has broken out across the country’s bogs, pitting the government, the European Commission and the green lobby against rural-dwellers fighting for the right to heat their homes.
The escalating dispute centres on the turf which has for centuries been carved out of the countryside for use as fuel. The Irish government has issued formal warnings that this weekend could see prosecutions if turf cutters target protected bogs.
But a cutters’ organisation, using unusually militant rhetoric, has issued a defiant clarion call evoking the Easter Rising, the insurrection which nearly a century ago culminated in the British withdrawal from southern Ireland.
In a ringing declaration, the Turf Cutters and Contractors Association told its members and supporters: “In the spirit of Irish freedom and independence, Easter week would be the ideal week to strike for freedom and exercise your rights in the time-honoured tradition.” The government is taking the issue extremely seriously, warning that wildlife rangers and others will be out on duty this weekend, and that those found taking turf from 53 protected raised bogs will face prosecution.
At the heart of the issue is a conflict between the ancient and the modern: the long-standing right to use turf as fuel versus modern concerns about the conservation of bogland and protection of the species which inhabit it.
The government has asked people to refrain from cutting while it seeks to negotiate with Europe about areas designated as legally protected.
The authorities have offered compensation, plus turf from alternative sources, but this has not satisfied the cutters. Minister Jimmy Deenihan has warned of consequences if cutting is not halted.
He said: “People will be brought to court. We will have to apply the law, otherwise Europe will impose major fines on Ireland – €25,000 a day.”
The green lobby in Ireland argues that the bogs contain a unique ecosystem which, once lost, could never be recovered.
One green advocate said: “These are the equivalent of our rain forests. The science explicitly states that these special areas will not withstand the level of extraction that is happening today.”
A better and alternative tourism is needed for Ireland, says Michael Vaughan president
The president of the Irish Hotels’ Federation, Michael Vaughan, said yesterday there had been a market failure in tourism in producing sufficient alternative tourism product from counties Cork to Donegal.
Mr Vaughan said that there was not enough tourism product in the west to give tourists valid reasons to stay there for long periods.
Mr Vaughan said that tourism in the west faced a separate challenge of a new dynamic in tourism, where tourists are taking day trips out of Dublin on the motorway system.
“Yet there is a pent-up demand internationally to fly into the west,” he said.
“The consensus of tourism bodies along the west coast is that the real issue is growth. Tourism growth is being generated in the east coast, but I have travelled to Donegal, Kerry, Clare and other counties, and these places are lagging behind and will lag behind.”
However, the newly elected IHF president said that a resurgent Shannon Airport was vital for tourism prospects in the west of Ireland.
In an interview, Mr Vaughan said: “Aviation policy has to drive traffic into Shannon, Cork and Knock to bring tourists to the heartland of tourism.”
Mr Vaughan added that currently Shannon Airport is in almost a zombie-like state.
“It [Shannon Airport] is in a state of chassis, but I believe that Minister for Transport and Tourism, Leo Varadkar, is going to do something very innovative with the airport,” he said.
Mr Vaughan attended a Shannon Chamber of Commerce event in Shannon last Friday where Mr Varadkar hinted that the new ownership structure would be independent and contain an IFSC-type model for the aviation industry.
“I was very encouraged by what Minister Varadkar had to say,” said Mr Vaughan. “He is a thoughtful and dynamic minister and if he can bring those qualities together for Shannon, it will be very positive.”
Mr Vaughan said that Shannon Airport had the potential to return to figures of three million passengers per annum.
The expected offering at Shannon Airport could include an expanded Shannon Hotel College of Management to cater for up to 1,000 students in the Aviation Hospitality sector, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment