What are your personal experiences with the Gardai

bubblypop wrote: »

This is not true.
A Garda cannot seize a car when the tax is out one month, it must be out over two months.

I looked up the legislation and you are correct.

Discodog wrote: »

There was also the woman on Liveline who, from memory, had her car seized in Dublin & had no money & no way to get her & her children back to Sligo.

I remember her last year. Ah she was messing around. She had no tax for several months, might have been over ten months. Sure she is under pressure with bills but she offered to pay up immediately if they only allowed her get back to Dublin.

She didn’t pay Irish rail for the tickets back to Dublin either.

Discodog wrote: »

Customs have their own rules. They can do whatever they like.

Feared by farmers using green diesel in their Jeep! If customs are around farmers talk about it. In some ways customs have more power than gardai at a checkpoint.

Brodie Creamy Yolk wrote: »

Grace, I can’t agree. I understand people are financially squeezed but it’s not an excuse to put your child into a car that has no business being on the road. There is clearly more to the story too than the tax being out by a month

But what harm does it do, cutting her a little slack, if the tax ends up being paid anyway ?

There were a series of checkpoints in the area during that week. No one had a good word to say about the Gardai afterwards. A little decency & understanding might help rebuild their reputation.

I was living in London during the IRA campaign. Immense stress for the Police but they remained helpful & courteous. In all my time there I never had a bad experience.

Brodie Creamy Yolk wrote: »

Decency? Is not driving around on roads uninsured and with no tax. The understanding I’m sure is the grace period in the first two weeks Gardai tend to show if stopped and the tax is out. Months of unpaid tax? That’s taking the P.

A lot of people have a car off the road for various reasons & don't realise that they have to declare it, especially as the law changed. I know someone who returned from Australia to find that he owed a fortune in back tax & as his no claims had lapsed, couldn't get insurance.

Allinall wrote: »

Did he just drive on regardless?

Nope he signed on the dole. No way to get to work.

Squatter wrote: »

What were the people whose car tax and insurance were in order complaining about?


Or do you live in an area where no one pays their way?

I see it all the time on my local facebook group. The same person who posts a warning about a Garda checkpoint will be complaining about the Gardaí doing nothing about crime in the area on other posts.

A lot of the problem is the politicians expecting crime rates to go down despite the huge budget cuts and reduced numbers over the last decade, so serving Gardaí are incentivize by their leadership to ignore certain crimes and inflate figures. It's the same in the UK. It's part of the reason the CSO doesn't trust official Garda statistics - they're just not an accurate reflection of reality.

Not to mention there is a huge underreporting of crimes by citizens simply because they've lost all faith in the "justice" system.

Discodog wrote: »

Yes because they get fed up with never seeing a Garda except at a checkpoint. There is a big emphasis on vehicle crime which most people see as less important than burglary, assault etc.

Im inclined to think that burglars might use cars.

RobbieMD wrote: »

Im inclined to think that burglars might use cars.

They are very unlikely to be pulled at a checkpoint unless they are unlucky and provided their discs are up to date, they won't be stopped. Any sensible gang will have a "clean" spotter car running ahead. Plus they know the back lanes where you never see a Garda.

Checkpoints need results so they are set up where there is the best chance of catching ordinary motorists.

elperello wrote: »

Which neatly brings us to the subject of the thread.
It's clear from a lot of the responses that AGS have a job of work to do to improve citizens experiences of interacting with them.
At a time of trying to rebuild confidence in AGS the new Commissioner should try to reduce the use of his people as revenue collectors.

And replace Gardai with civilians where ever possible.

Discodog wrote: »

Oh dear. You really believe that ? In Dublin, against gangs, maybe to a small degree but no where else. The checkpoints are on Twitter. The criminals have phones.

Most Galway checkpoints are on the same roads. The most common place is Merchants Road. There are routes all around & through the city where you will never see a checkpoint.

Checkpoints are so old fashioned & lazy. The UK Police call the traffic cops the shiny trouser brigade

I believe it's effective because I have seen it's effect and I've seen the difference between when checkpoints are regular and when they aren't in different areas.

Discodog wrote: »

In Dublin ? The gardai only have a couple of checkpoints in Co Galway at any one time

In Dublin and in the country. New commissioner has cancelled most overtime so you won't see many outside of Dublin these days.

lesterburnham wrote: »

Good or bad

I wouldn't burden you all with a wall of text. But let's all of us assume the proverbial glass would be half empty, take what you like from that.

CrankyHaus wrote: »

For most purposes checkpoints are inefficient and outmoded. Widespread ANPR, linked to up to date information banks, has been well within the abilities of technology for a long time now.
Of course this reliance on them is not the fault of ranking Gardai, but it's hard to think of a better symbol for the obsolescence of the organisation than its ubiquitous checkpoints.

An ANPR is not going to recognise a driver or notice something suspicious.