Lack of roads policing gardaí in Cork causing ‘chaos’

A change to the Cork City Roads Policing Unit roster which sees gardaí start at 10am instead of 7am has been causing issues since the alteration came into effect two months ago, it has been claimed.

A source close to roads policing revealed to The Echo in November that the unit would be moving from 7am-2am coverage to 10am-2am coverage.

Two months on since the change was implemented, the source said it is presenting challenges.

“You have traffic accidents happening every morning of the week, on the South Link and places like that, it’s half mayhem,” they said.

“From a policing point of view, it doesn’t really make sense to start the roads policing unit at 10am."

The source added: “I don’t know of any other roads policing unit in the country that doesn’t start until 10am.” 

The source added that if a road traffic incident occurs in the city before 10am when Gardaí in roads policing are not on shift, other Garda units are deployed to the scene – diverting their attention from other work.

“If there’s an accident at 9am and it requires three or four units, then you have three or four units tied up that should be doing other work,” they said.

"Now, the only thing is I do see it changing. Probably before the end of the first quarter, rosters should be sorted out. I’d say the hours will change slightly,” they added.

Dedicated roads policing units exist in each Garda division and enforce road traffic legislation.

These units are supported by all members of An Garda Síochána, who also have to enforce such legislation.

A statement to The Echo from An Garda Síochána said: “An Garda Síochána does not comment on the operational deployment of resources or specific units.

“An Garda Síochána commenced an ‘interim roster’ in November 2023 to facilitate negotiations on a new roster.” Speaking back in November, the source had claimed that local Garda management wanted Gardaí in the city’s roads policing unit to change their shifts to work until 4am and, when they refused, the current change was an attempt to “discommode” staff by not letting them come in at 7am.

They warned that the move could lead to traffic “chaos” in the city, should an early morning incident occur.

It is going to cause — when you have an accident, we’ll say on the link during [morning] rush hour, or in the tunnel, or any one of those major roadways — absolute chaos and they will have very few resources to deal with it,” they said.