Shortage Of Garda Staff At Thurles Station Raises Serious Concerns.

The staffing situation at Thurles Garda Station has been flagged by local people as being inadequate to meet the demands of the districts community. Thurles Garda station is indeed struggling from a lack of Garda manpower as our picture hereunder shows today, with Garda vehicles parked up due simply to the lack of Garda drivers.

In other areas we are aware from Oireachtas Data, that on some days of the week, there are only six Gardaí; (two in Newport-Killaloe, two in Nenagh on outside duty, and one or two in the Roscrea area), thus rendering the current situation in the north of Tipperary as being totally insufficient.
This leads to the obvious concerns now being raised by our local community, regarding response times and the ability of Gardaí to continue to provide a visible, reassuring presence in the now Thurles sub-district.

At national level Senior Gardaí are constantly reviewing the allocation of resources solely in the context of operational need, crime trends and policing demands, e.g, Dublin City centre, however, no specific timetable for additional deployment of Gardaí to the Thurles area has as yet been publicly communicated.

Implications for the area within the Thurles sub-district and the overall Tipperary community.

The shortage of Garda personnel has several practical implications:

1. Fewer officers are available for community-based policing and visible patrols, thus undermining public confidence.
2. Potential delays in response to incidents, especially in Tipperary’s rural hinterlands served by the Thurles sub-district.
3. Administrative and procedural tasks (such as sign-offs for passport forms, motor-tax documentation) may become harder to obtain locally, increasing inconvenience for local citizens.
4. The burden on those Gardai on duty greatly increases, with fewer officers available for proactive policing, referrals and outreach.

What is now needed?

• A clear commitment is now required from the Department of Justice and the Garda Commissioners’ office, regarding the allocation of additional Gardaí to be deployed in Thurles and required in the districts rural outlying stations.
• Enhanced support for community policing models that allow for proactive engagement, rather than purely reactive responses.
• Transparent monitoring of whether the new operational model being rolled out in the Garda service will result in more boots on the ground in Thurles, not continuous reduced cover.

Conclusion:
The current staffing shortfall at Thurles Garda Station poses a legitimate concern for local residents especially the elderly. Without timely action to bolster numbers, there is a risk that both the visible policing presence and the capacity for community engagement will remain constrained.
As the Garda service progresses with reforms and new deployment models, ensuring that rural and regional stations like Thurles are adequately resourced remains a matter of extreme urgency.

I searched the available public databases [including the An Garda Síochána and the Oireachtas (Parliament PQ records)] for station-specific deployment figures (e.g. cars, drivers, shifts) for Thurles Garda Station, but could not locate any recent publicly-released data that details:-

• the number of patrol vehicles assigned to Thurles Garda station;
• the number of available drivers or officers authorised to drive same vehicles;
• the shift-cover breakdown for drivers/vehicles at Garda station:

Next Question: Are all our salaried Public Representatives still on Summer Holidays or have they hibernated for the Winter?.