Call for Gardai with guns - not sticks

TUAM-based Garda Dermot O’Brien, President of the Garda Representative Assiociation (GRA), says “armed incidents are for armed Gardai to deal with” and not for members of the force “with bits of sticks”.
He is urging his members “to act wisely in such situations” and for senior officers not to send unarmed members into danger where there is an armed incident. His association is also calling for more armed members.
“Regarding having more armed members, we should be expanding our response capabilities on a divisional basis.
“Look at Limerick where they saturated the area with armed and uniformed personnel and it has worked in the fight against crime. The same happened with the police in New York but on a much greater scale,” he added.
Garda O’Brien says that at present the armed Garda Regional Support Unit could be “in Belmullet or Kilrush at a time when there might be an armed incident in Tuam,” which is far from ideal.