Today the 31 January 2013 saw the closure of 100 Garda Barracks close their dors for the last time. Well the last time during the term of this present government. They may re-open under a new government. The vast majorty of these stations were in rural areas of the country. Some had only one or two garda on duty, with some only opening part time. The minister for justice says that there will be less crime because there are 100 less Garda stations to protect the people. [Strange Logic] He says he wants to put the garda onto the streets and not have them behind desks doing paper work. Now lets have a look at his logic. First of all he is not going to recruit and additional staff to do ''Paper Work'' so the garda will still have to do that part of the job. He wants the garda out on the streets ? well when you remove garda from a townland to a large town 15 miles away it takes a lot longer for a squad car to get to where the crime is taken place where the rural barracks was. He says that some of the stations that were closed were only recording one or two crimes a week and there was no need for a garda to be there, well the reason why there were only one or two crimes per week is because the garda on duty in the rural barracks acted as a deterrent to crime, that's why crime was kept under control.
Update 1-2-2013
Only a day after the minister for justice said closing garda staitions would cut down on crime and we have a kidnap and robbery at the post office in Oldcastle Co. Meath where the local garda barracks only opens part time. It just so happens that this station is only two doors down from the post office that was robbed. Now if that does not prove the point I made earlier then the minister is unfit to hold office. We awate more robberies in areas where stations were closed down or only open part time.
In 10 years time the R.T.E. programme 'Rolling Back The Years'' will surly feature this story for the year 2013, the year Fine Gael and the Labour Party closed rural barracks to save a few million because the I.M.F. money lenders said to do it. The programme will also say this decision along with the property tax, water tax, and a raft of other cuts was the reason the Labour Party lost all it's seats in the 2015 general election.