Renewed calls for full-time garda station in this Kildare town

A Labour councillor has made renewed calls for a full-time garda station to serve Maynooth, Co Kildare.

Cllr Angela Feeney has long been campaigning for a full-time garda station for the town, recently tabling a motion requesting a letter be forwarded to the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice in this regard.

“I think Maynooth has grown to such a huge size and we have a population that when you combine it with the university population, it's over 30,000”, Cllr Feeney said this week.

“I know from sitting in on meetings with the gardai when they update us, that the stats are there that it's a growing town and with that comes growing problems and particularly we have a lot of issues with drug use and criminality.

“It's hard to believe that they expect us to go down to the garda station in Leixlip if we have an issue. Leixlip is in itself a huge town and is growing, then straight away you've to think about getting a train or bus down to Leixlip if you don't have a car.

“We need to be planning for this, because all the projected population growth shows that Maynooth, because it's already been identified as a key growth town in the county, the population is only going upwards. We need to plan now to have our own full-time, standalone garda station.”

At the March meeting of the Clane-Maynooth municipal district, Cllr Feeney was successful with a motion seeking to forward a letter to the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice requesting a full-time garda station for Maynooth.

While a response was issued by the Garda Commissioner, which confirmed 'adjusted' hours now in place for Maynooth Garda Station, a reply is yet to be forthcoming from the Minister.

The revised opening hours for Maynooth Garda Station are as follows:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 7.30pm-9.30pm

Tuesday, Thursday: 1.30pm-3.30pm

Saturday: 10am - 12noon

While Cllr Feeney has welcomed the concessions made by gardai for the people of Maynooth, ultimately, she said, the move is simply “not good enough.”

“I welcome the fact that they're adjusting the hours to suit people's working days...but my case is, I feel it's just not good enough”, Cllr Feeney said of the response from the Garda Commissioner.

“Everything with Maynooth we're told it's going to be somewhere else, whether it's a primary care centre or a garda station, so Maynooth I feel is being left behind.

“It's just not good enough to get a letter back saying it's going to continue as is, in other words.”

Cllr Feeney said she will continue to lobby for a full-time garda station in Maynooth, and awaits a response from the Minister for Justice.

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