Of 201 new gardai, seven coming to north west



Seven of the 201 new gardai who have graduated from Templemore are coming to the north west.

Three of them will be in the Sligo/Leitrim division and four in the Donegal division.

After the most recent passing Garda passing-out ceremony at the Training College in Templemore, the force now has 14,467 members, the largest number in 10 years.

That includes 11,756 at Garda rank, 2,105 sergeants and 381 inspectors.

Of the new gardai, four are coming to the Donegal division, to Buncrana and Ballyshannon, with two coming to Letterkenny.

The three new gardai coming to the Sligo/Leitrim division are being assigned to Sligo town garda station.

An Garda Siochana says the increase in the numbers of inspectors and sergeants increases supervisory capacity, which was a key request of Garda members at all ranks.

The force says this will enable more community-focussed policing.

There are now 2,976 civilians in An Garda Siochana, which has resulted in the reassignment of 602 sworn garda members from administrative to operational duties.

Meanwhile, concern remains about policing in rural areas, about response times of the Garda armed response unit in the north west, and the numbers assigned to combat increasing drug use.

Retired Donegal garda sergeant Christy Galligan told the North West Today Show how he was watching the Donegal vs Dublin game in a premises at the weekend when he saw drug dealing openly taking place.

However, when he called the gardai, he was told there was no one available to deal with the situation.



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