Gardaí confirmed this weekend that a new facility on Dublin's O'Connell Street will in fact be designated as an official garda station, days after the force claimed that it would only be used as a Garda Liaison Office.
Contradicting a May announcement by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, gardaí last week told Prime Time that, while a new facility would be opened at 13A O’Connell Street, it would not in fact be designated as a garda station.
But, in an apparent U-turn, gardaí said today that "the [Garda] Commissioner intends to designate the facility as a garda station".
The commissioner’s intervention on the issue follows comments from Ms McEntee in the wake of a Prime Time report on drug dealing, violence and dereliction on O'Connell Street.
"People shouldn’t be seeing somebody getting the head beaten off them walking down the street in our main city," Ms McEntee said.
While the minister said that gardaí were responding to anti-social behaviour on the street, she said that "there is much more that we need to do".
She said that a special operation to deal with anti-social behaviour in the city centre, known as Operation Citizen, would be "relaunched" and "re-energised" within the next fortnight.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin also commented on the matter last week and told the Dáil that he had been "struck" by some of the violent scenes in the report.
But Mr Martin suggested that it was a local authority matter, noting that Dublin City Council has to be "at the heart of the rejuvenation of O'Connell Street".
"Dublin City Council is there to run this city," he said.
The Garda Press Office has not responded to queries from Prime Time as to when Commissioner Drew Harris made the decision to designate the O’Connell Street facility as a garda station.
In its original statement, the Garda Press Office said the office would serve as a place to offer advice and assistance to tourists and members of the public.
"It is not intended that the premises will be designated as a Garda Station, rather it will be utilised as a Garda Liaison Office," it had said.
