"parking outside Garda stations makes us look like a banana repubic"

[werner]

The abuse of illegal parking by Gardai in front of Store St garda station was so bad that Dublin city council re-designed the public space in front of it and erected enough scenically designed bollards to prevent the Garda cars from parking on it

 

[werner]

You station a guard in the city centre,give him a unsocial starting time,and provide inadequate or no parking spaces.
Does no one here have any sympathy for AGS?

The Gardai are there to uphold the law equally. it is unprofessional and shameful and it brings the law into dis-respect when it is being abused by the Gardai this way.

There is a huge amount of available parking spaces in unoccupied or nearly vacant apartment complexes in the centre of Dublin, due to the anti private car non-strategy of Dublin city council, when folk attempted to rent out vacant spaces Dublin city council prevented it and argued that it would only attract private cars into town! They killed two birds with one stone, stopping the generation of taxes and employment in under utilised facilites.

Someone needs to bang heads together because there is so much available parking spaces that are being prevented from being used on an ideological basis, that there is easily enough to resolve a multitude of parking difficulties for the Gardai, commuters and shoppers in town whilst increasing employmnet and generating taxes for the state.

 

[The_Banker]

Finally a journalist with some courage to finally write what other journalists are afraid to.

This should be followed up with a letter campaign to the Garda Commissioner if we want this illegal parking stopped. Officers of the law should not only uphold the law but adhere to the law.

We have a similar situation here in Cork where Gardai park illegally outside the Bridewell Station on Cornmarket st. Likewise judges andgardai park illegally on the footpath outside the courthouse on Washington St. In fact the small street between the courthouse and The Washington Inn is closed due to illegally parked cars when the court is in session.
Has been that way for years. Don't know why nothing was ever done about it.

 

[micmclo]

I wonder if any of you remember Store St in Dublin before they put in the small square. Parking all over the place.
No pics in google so I can't do a comparison

I don't see Pearse St as much of an issue at all.
That road is for access and restricted, most car drivers shouldn't drive past the station anyway
http://g.co/maps/qqhvu
Though the pics here so a few drivers taking a short cut.

This is the one I am most familiar with. Access to College Green by buses, taxis and bicycles is often severely restricted by the triple parking.

Buses maybe.
I'm often down that road on my scooter and never been restricted or blocked in

 

[werner]

I wonder if any of you remember Store St in Dublin before they put in the small square. Parking all over the place.
No pics in google so I can't do a comparison

I don't see Pearse St as much of an issue at all.
That road is for access and restricted, most car drivers shouldn't drive past the station anyway
http://g.co/maps/qqhvu
Though the pics here so a few drivers taking a short cut.

Pearse St is a very serious issue due to sick and disabled people ( I recently helped a cancer sufferer, a social welfare recipient across here where that department sited on Pearse St reviews people who are claiming benefits). I expect a cyclist will be killed along the Pearse St to College Green route due to the highly dangerous Garda car parking and Dublin bus parking making it a lethal area to cycle through.

 

[MrMan]

I can't stand seeing ambulances tearing through towns and flashing lights to overtake other traffic on roads. I mean, what's the hurry?

Ya cause when you kill someone while overtaking on a bend its fine because you are on an emergency right?

 

[RonanC]

+1. They set a very bad example and flout the law in many ways. They have powers that other citizens don't have and so shoul dbehave better than the rest of us, not worse.

Every citizen in this land of ours has the right to use their mobile phone while driving in an emergency situation only. Gardai, given the job they do, use this piece of legislation when using their mobile phones while driving.

 

[liaconn]

Ask any person to start at an unsocial starting or finishing time and there is an issue. It does not give them carte blanche to park wherever they like, otherwise you'd have every pavement in the city blocked by barmen, 24 hour shop staff, train drivers, firemen, pilots and council workers.

The Gardai still have a mentality of being able to do whatever they like on account of their occupation.

Someone I know lets a property through a letting agency. Apparently, the agency's unofficial 'black list' includes Gardai because there have been problems with them refusing to pay outstanding rent when they're leaving and basically making it clear that life will be made difficult for the landlord if s/he pursues them for the outstanding monies.

 

[Purple]

Every citizen in this land of ours has the right to use their mobile phone while driving in an emergency situation only. Gardai, given the job they do, use this piece of legislation when using their mobile phones while driving.

If that's true then they are lying and abusing their power in order to break the law.

 

[Sunny]

If that's true then they are lying and abusing their power in order to break the law.

They are not all the time. They don't have to be responding to an emergency. (That's just an excuse for Joe Public) They just need to be using it in the performance of their duty. Same as ambulance drivers. Not saying it is not abused but you have no-way of knowing unless you are in the car with them listening to their conversation. Many guards use their own phones while on duty because of a lack of a proper communications system.

 

[Sunny]

Someone I know lets a property through a letting agency. Apparently, the agency's unofficial 'black list' includes Gardai because there have been problems with them refusing to pay outstanding rent when they're leaving and basically making it clear that life will be made difficult for the landlord if s/he pursues them for the outstanding monies.

I also heard of a member of the Gardai who during the floods last year and despite being off duty went to help members of the public and ended up losing his life.

 

[The_Banker]

They are not all the time. They don't have to be responding to an emergency. (That's just an excuse for Joe Public) They just need to be using it in the performance of their duty. Same as ambulance drivers. Not saying it is not abused but you have no-way of knowing unless you are in the car with them listening to their conversation. Many guards use their own phones while on duty because of a lack of a proper communications system.

Regardless of whether the mobile is being used in an official or personal capacity it is no less dangerous.
It a Garda blows an old woman or child into the air because he is on the phone while driving it makes little difference to the old woman or child when they hit the pavement whether the call that cost them their life was from the gardas wife asking what he wants for his dinner or his local sargent telling him his paperwork isn't up to scratch.

 

[Purple]

I also heard of a member of the Gardai who during the floods last year and despite being off duty went to help members of the public and ended up losing his life.

True but does one excuse the other?

 

[Sunny]

Regardless of whether the mobile is being used in an official or personal capacity it is no less dangerous.
It a Garda blows an old woman or child into the air because he is on the phone while driving it makes little difference to the old woman or child when they hit the pavement whether the call that cost them their life was from the gardas wife asking what he wants for his dinner or his local sargent telling him his paperwork isn't up to scratch.

That's not the point. The point is that they are allowed to use the phones while driving and on duty so accusing them of abusing their position to break the law is incorrect. I also presume that many gardai drivers benefit from advanced driver training. How many accidents or fatalities are ther every year involving emergency services personnel driving recklessly or carelessy before we start painting a picture of gardai everywhere blowing old women and children into the air because they were on their mobile phone.

 

[Sunny]

True but does one excuse the other?

No, but painting an entire profession in a negative light because of the actions of a few is not fair either. Especially when it seems to be based on hearsay.

 

[The_Banker]

That's not the point. The point is that they are allowed to use the phones while driving and on duty so accusing them of abusing their position to break the law is incorrect. I also presume that many gardai drivers benefit from advanced driver training. How many accidents or fatalities are ther every year involving emergency services personnel driving recklessly or carelessy before we start painting a picture of gardai everywhere blowing old women and children into the air because they were on their mobile phone.

I don't have figures for Garda accidents but I'd hazard a guess that even if they were involved in a traffic accident few have ever been convicted of dangerous driving.

If I (as an ordinary member of the public) could cause an accident while on a mobile phone then so could gardai, regardless of an advanced driver training. Are they thought how to park as well on the advanced driver training class?

 

[liaconn]

I also heard of a member of the Gardai who during the floods last year and despite being off duty went to help members of the public and ended up losing his life.

We are talking about Gardai who abuse their position to flout the law. It is a very real issue and the above is a bit of a cheap shot.

 

[The_Banker]

I also heard of a member of the Gardai who during the floods last year and despite being off duty went to help members of the public and ended up losing his life.

A corkman lost his life at Garrettstown beach a few years back trying to save a swimmer in distress.

Don't get your point?

Acts of bravery isn't just a Garda trait. We are all capable of bravery but not all of us are allowed double or treble park. Or talk on mobile phones while we drive.

 

[liaconn]

No, but painting an entire profession in a negative light because of the actions of a few is not fair either. Especially when it seems to be based on hearsay.

Nowhere did I 'paint the entire profession'. I said 'there had been incidents' not that 'every guard behaves like this'.

 

[gipimann]

The abuse of illegal parking by Gardai in front of Store St garda station was so bad that Dublin city council re-designed the public space in front of it and erected enough scenically designed bollards to prevent the Garda cars from parking on it

The city council paved the area in front of the station, so the cars moved to side streets on either side (as well as parking in the station and in the former car compound beside it). One of the side streets has no exit at one end (except for taxis and garda vehicles), so the council built a turning circle to facilitate cars, trucks, etc. The turning circle (marked with double yellow lines) is full of cars - I can't confirm who owns them, but I could make a guess.

Delivery trucks/vans to the nearby pub have to reverse to exit the side street.