DONEGAL’S over-stretched Gardai are set to face another challenge as the Glenties District will be axed within months, Donegal Daily has learned.
Under plans set out by the Government and the Garda Commissioner the District will disappear from the Donegal Division of the force by September.
But senior sources in the Gardai have told us the axe will fall much sooner.
The move will also see the loss of senior members of staff.
It also means neighbouring districts taking over the huge area currently covered by Glenties with Milford, Letterkenny and Ballyshannon districts expanded.
“These people (Garda HQ) look at the map in their offices in Dublin and think this will be easy, but it won’t. They just don’t get rural policing and the difficulties in covering a vast county like Donegal,” said one insider.
“We believe the Glenties district will go within months, if not weeks. It is already being run down as a district and morale is very low because of it.
“A lot of gardai are seriously thinking about packing it all in. With the threat of allowances being taken away and all the other threatened cuts, the loss of Glenties district will be the final straw,” he added.
The warning about low morale came just hours after more than 100 Gardai met in Letterkenny last night to express growing anger at the direction of the force under the stewardship of Justice Minister Alan Shatter.
The Garda Representative Association, which represents rank and file gardai, says members will support a new ‘Blue Flu’.
One Garda, who asked not to be named, said he believed the ‘strike’ could last a week or even longer.
Gardai are forbidden by law from going on strike, but officers may all call in sick on the same day, or same set of days, leaving the country without a police force.
Our exclusive story on last night’s meeting is here:
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