Donegal Town Garda Station to remain open 12 hours per day

A public meeting of the Donegal Joint Policing Committee has been told that while 1.5 million euro is to be spent upgrading the Garda Station in Donegal Town, it will only be opened 12 hours per day.
It was revealed at the meeting, in The Abbey Hotel in Donegal Town on Tuesday night, that the local station hadn’t effectively been a 24 hour station since 2009.
The meeting heard concerns from the town’s Mayor Pauric Kennedy that the lack of a 24 hour station could encourage criminals to target the town though this was rejected by senior gardai. The Mayor was told that it was a better use of resources to have gardai out on patrols in the area rather than sitting behind a desk.
There are 25 gardai attached to the station, 2 of which are sergeants.
The meeting was also told that gardai were actively targeting underage drinking. This included focusing on drinking “hot spots” and inspecting buses transporting teens to underage discos in Letterkenny.
It was also revealed that a number of undercover checks had taken place on businesses across the county to check for the sale of alcohol to under 18s – there was a very high compliance rate.