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ALL OF THE garda escort motorcycles in the country were taken off-road for July and August, while local traffic units covered escorts, TheJournal.ie has learned.
The motorcycles, which are used for presidential escorts, in the transportation of prisoners to and from court and for escorting ambulances to hospitals in serious cases, are also used in regular traffic duty.
There are around 20 of these bikes, based in the Dublin Metropolitan Region, and all of them were out of action for two months, under the premise that they would be undergoing health and safety checks, sources have said.
“That would have taken no more than two weeks,” a source said. “People were asking why they were sitting there for another six weeks and why no one was using them.”
Over this two month period, gardaí were doing escorts on traffic motorcycles which were described as “substandard”, as they are much less powerful than the Yamaha FJR escort bikes and cannot reach the speeds required.
TheJournal.ie also learned that the traffic corps in Dublin had been pushing escorts towards local traffic units, though escort duty is generally performed by gardaí based at Dublin Castle.
Stretched resources
Sources said there is a belief among gardaí that this move was taken to make immediate savings in the stretched garda budget. Overall numbers of garda vehicles have been decreasing in the last number of years from 2,677 in 2011 to 2,473 in June 2013.
The number of garda motorcycles has fallen from 238 in 2009 to 170 in March of this year.
Almost 130 of these vehicles were more than five-years-old with 71 of those being used for at least seven years. An Garda Síochána is required to replace vehicles once they reach a certain mileage but the limit for motorcycles is much lower than for cars and it is thought that the ageing bikes are being kept off the roads to delay their replacement.
One garda source said the budget limits the purchase of new vehicles but there is a larger provision for repairs and so they are often fixed up multiple times – even if it costs more than replacing them.
It is understood that last year, a garda car involved in a head-on collision in Limerick was repaired at a cost of almost €6,000, despite the fact that the car could have been replaced for about €3,000.
“If that car had cost €10,000 to repair it would have been paid because the repairs budget is higher – there’s no lateral thinking”, the source explained.
We’re in cars with wires exposed, radios and sirens not working, crashed and then patched up. There’s no budget for new cars but there’s a budget for repairing them so when something should be written off, instead there’s thousands poured into it to keep it on the road.
‘Monitored and reviewed’
In response to a query on the issue, the Garda Press Office said:
The allocation of these vehicles will be determined by Garda Traffic, Dublin Castle consistent with operational requirements and the operational requirements in the Dublin Metropolitan Region will be considered within the the overall operational requirement of the organisation.
“The allocation of garda motorcycles is monitored and reviewed on a continual basis to ensure the best match with operational requirements,” it added.
When contacted by TheJournal.ie, the Department of Justice declined to comment.
This report was first published on Monday, 23 September 2013, at 6am.
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The producers are bluffing the EU, Ireland is doing it right. Aldi and Lidl do this here too – you can see exactly where the fish was caught, how it was caught and even the scientific name of the kind of fish. It obviously doesn’t cost Aldi and Lidl huge amounts to respect customers enough to supply information.
New law! How about enforcing the old laws that would be a start.
Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
This is why intelligent humans choose vegetarianism.
@Tommy_Bannon: Closing the stable door after the horse was eaten , to be more precise
Don’t forget there are plenty of intelligent people who eat meat too.
If you want to be healthy try cutting animal products from your diet. Processed meat that comes in a packet can’t be good for you. Either can milk from another animal that full of hormones and puss..
European milk does not contain hormones or ‘puss’. Every delivery from every farm is checked for temperature, antibiotics, bacteria etc. So stop spreading downright lies about the food we produce.
@Mick: of course there’s hormones in milk. You do realise dairy cows are constantly impregnated to produce milk. Cows like women are full of hormones while pregnant and those naturally produced hormones go into their milk to help bulk up calves. Its not intended for human consumption.. If you’re happy drinking and eating another animals milk go ahead.. Each to their own i suppose
I’m a dairy farmer myself. I understand completely the process works. What you are implying is false though. Natural, grass fed milk contains nothing untoward, we’ve been drinking milk for thousands of years. It’s when people start adding sugar and salt, E numbers and artificial chemical additives is when the trouble starts.
@Mick: Mick im not implying anything false. Cows milk is full of hormones, hormones that nature intends to help calves bulk up hundreds of pounds. It is not intended for children or adults to consume.
The natural hormones in milk are not in unusual quantities to cause any harm in humans. The levels of protein, butterfat etc in the 6L+ of milk that a calf consumes are responsible for growth. Generations of Irish people have eaten beef, dairy, eggs etc without issue. Obesity has only become an issue in this country since the 70′s, due to the advent of cheap, highly processed foods, the likes of coca cola with 30g+ of sugar per serving.
@Cosmo Kramer: backtrack much?
What about products labelled as Irish but brought down from the Uk?
No mention of take always etc imposing their religious beliefs on you, if you buy a ham pizza at many hundred placed you may be served dyed turkey NOT ham because these people don’t have any respect for you, nor your freedom to eat what you choose. It is often written on menu boards but often it won’t; it is dishonest but not illegal make sure your ham is not turkey meat dyed pink a common practice these days but The EU respect our rights on these issues.
Any particular reason a Lidl own-brand product was chosen to illustrate the story? Is there something we should be told?
Anybody .anywhere.here or abroad held accountable for putting shit into our food in the form of un regulated horse meat?anyone..
have your say