Kilkenny has lowest level of 24-hour Garda cover in country

BY COLIN BARTLEY

KILKENNY comes rock bottom of all the Garda districts in the county when it comes to 24-hour cover.

The Kilkenny-Carlow division came joint last of all the Garda districts who have stations opened 24-hours a day. Just three of the 27 stations – Kilkenny, Thomastown and Carlow – in the division are open all day every day.

Out of the 18 other stations in Kilkenny and six in Carlow, two (Callan and Mooncoin) open three hours per day every day.

Kilkenny also comes third from bottom when it comes to the total amount of hours combined the stations are opened per district. Currently, stations in the Carlow/Kilkenny district are opened for 761.5 hours per week.

Considering the three mentioned stations are open for 504 hours between them, the remaining 24 stations in the district are opened for a combined total of 257.5, a little over 10 hours each per week on average.

Only stations in counties Meath and Westmeath have stations that open for fewer hours.

The figures emerged in a new analysis of An Garda Siochana’s station directory, published by The Irish Times over the weekend.

The analysis shows nearly 60% of Garda stations nationwide are open for three hours or less Monday to Friday, with many closed at the weekend.

The amount of stations in the State has been reduced from 703 to 564 since 2011.

Three of these closed stations were in Kilkenny: Inistioge (pictured), Johnstown and Ballyragget.