Call to scrap new policing model

Tipp gardaí are ‘overwhelmed’

Gardaí are not happy with the amalgamated Tipperary-Clare division and want to revert to the way things were, a representative of local members has said.

The new division came into operation in 2023 as part of a nationally restructured policing model. Garda districts were replaced by new functional areas in a move welcomed by senior officers, who said the reformed structure would lead to a more effective use of policing resources.

But rank-and-file members expressed reservations about the change, and these have now led to calls for the new operating policing model to be scrapped. The Garda Representative Association brought a motion before its annual conference last week calling for a review of the model, which it claimed “has failed and is not fit for purpose”.

Garda Richie Kennedy, a member of the GRA's central executive, said there was “total condemnation” of the new operating model by speakers from all over the country. The situation in Tipperary was very much to the fore, where the conference heard of problems created for under-resourced gardaí having to police a vast geographical area with not enough time to meet the demands on paperwork that come with it.

“This thing has turned out to be a resource black hole and it's just not working,” Garda Kennedy said of the new operating policing model.

‘FRANKENSTEIN DIVISION’

Spending most of his 25 years of service in the Nenagh district, Garda Kennedy described the Tipp-Clare amalgamation as a “Frankenstein Division. They put parts together that don't really match.”

The restructuring saw the creation of a Clare East/Tipp North policing area consisting of the old Nenagh district along with the former sub-districts of Killaloe and Scariff.

“The idea of bringing Killaloe into Nenagh never made sense,” Garda Kennedy said. “It was never a natural fit and it continues not to be a natural fit.”