It took gardaí more than 45 minutes to attend an incident at a Donegal County Council meeting last week because there was no patrol car available, the council has heard.
A garda vehicle had to come from Ballybofey for officers to make their way to the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny to make enquiries into an alleged theft.
The incident was highlighted by Cllr Terry Crossan this week as he called for more garda resources in Donegal and the border villages.
He brought a motion to the council this week on the back of a conversation he had with his local Superintendent when she was considering the redeployment of gardaí from a local station which was much further from the border.
“During our conversation, she told me she was seriously under-resourced in terms of both manpower and vehicles. It is clearly evident that this is the case in terms of response times to any incidences.
“Only last Monday gardaí were summoned to attend here at the Aura. It took them more than 45 minutes to respond and they cited the reason that no vehicle was available. Clearly this is totally unacceptable.”
Cllr Crossan also asked that Donegal County Council extends an invitation to Commissioner Harris to ask him to attend an upcoming meeting of the Donegal Joint Policing Committee.
The motion was passed, and the council is set to contact the Garda Commissioner in relation to policing resources in the County. This matter is due to be considered by the Joint Policing Committee when they meet in September.
