Issue Date: 10 March 2023
This morning, 10th March 2023 Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris opened a new Garda Station on O’Connell Street, Dublin 1.
The opening was also attended by Minister for Justice, Simon Harris TD and Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD.
Renovation works, undertaken by the Office of Public Works (OPW), on the new Garda Station at 13A O’Connell Street, Dublin began in October 2022. The building will have a public reception with adjacent interview rooms for members of the public to report crime or seek assistance.
The Garda station also provides office space, at ground and basement floors as well as ancillary facilities including a meeting room, tea station, sanitary, storage and welfare facilities for Garda members.
The Garda Station opening hours will be 08:00hrs to 02:00hrs daily.
This Garda Station will be a stand-alone Garda Station within the Store Street, ‘C’ District and will be staffed with one (1) Sergeant and four (4) Gardaí.
There are no prisoner cells in the station and, as happens in many sub-district Garda stations countrywide, arrested persons will be conveyed to the District Headquarters at Store Street Garda Station.
The Garda Station will host a permanent office for our partners, the Irish Tourism Assistance Service (ITAS). This collaboration will provide a complete policing and ancillary victim service for tourists who are victims of crime. The Irish Tourist Assistance Service (ITAS) will provide a suitable environment where members of the public visiting this jurisdiction can speak about their experience in confidence away from the public office of 13A O’Connell Street Upper.
The Garda Station on O’Connell Street will provide a central, visible and permanent location for Gardaí in the north inner city centre. It will enhance visibility and improve citizen safety in the O’Connell Street area. It will also provide a central base for the organisation to continue its close work with local stakeholders, including the North East Inner City (NEIC) and the Local Community Safety Partnership.
The permanent Garda station will provide support to Operation Citizen the overarching Garda response to ensure high visibility and a proactive response to anti-social behaviour and other crimes occurring in that area. The Garda Station at 13 A O’Connell Street will become a place where members of the public will have the opportunity to engage with members of An Garda Síochána for the purpose of reporting a crime, seeking advice and all of the other services that they may require will further enhance our present on the capital’s main thoroughfare.
Members assigned to Operation Citizen continue to be deployed on beat patrol. They will parade at the new O’Connell Street Garda Station at 8am and 4pm respectively each day. There are a total of four (4) Sergeants and forty (40) Gardaí are assigned to Operation Citizen.
Operation Citizen is regularly supported by members from the Garda Dog Unit and Garda Mounted Unit when available.
The focus of Operation Citizen in the north inner city is O’Connell Street, Henry Street, Boardwalk and surrounding laneways and streets. A cornerstone of this operation is our hi-visibility engagement with businesses and residents in the local community.
