Garda had to thumb a lift after electric car ran out of power, Oireachtas committee hears

There is no charger at his garda station.

Commissioner Justin Kelly appeared yesterday before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Fianna Fail Martin Daly, TD from Galway-Roscommon, told the story of a local garda officer in Ballygar, County Galway. 

Garda Pat Regan an “exemplar” for community policing, has no patrol car assigned to his station.

Daly said the garda was called to a serious incident in Clonbern when he had 22% charge left in the car. 

“At 11% depletion of that charge, he decided to pull over because he would be stranded if he went on further. He hitched the last three miles to Clonbern to attend that scene," he said.

“A passing person picked him up and brought him to the scene. He drove back to Ballygar after the incident was dealt with, and a tow truck had to be called to bring the car away because there’s no charging in Ballygar."

He travels to collect an electric patrol car from Mountbellew which is 10 miles from his station, and then brings it back to his to use it. There is no charging port for the vehicle in Ballygar. 

“It sounds parochial, but it’s not parochial because it’s emblematic of an issue in rural areas and [with garda] transport,” he said. 

The patrol car will often be low in battery because it is constantly in use. The vehicle takes 25 hours to fully charge. 

The TD explained it is a regular occurrence that there is little left in the battery for day-to-day policing. 

Daly said Regan has been “waiting for years” for a patrol car for his station, adding: “So I’m putting out an appeal for him”.

“We’ve had a number of incidents in the Roscommon and Galway area, which is my constituency, where guards have been in pursuit of serious criminals and literally run out of juice, and that puts the organisation up for ridicule.

“It’s a Keystone Cops situation, which is most unfair to the individual garda,” he added. 

Daly said he was in favour of sustainable energy and moving to electrical cars but said it was not appropriate for rural areas.

In response Justin Kelly said it was “very concerning” and told the committee that electric cars should not be used in rural areas.

“Electric vehicles are a challenge for us. Why I say is that, of course, we share exactly what you said around sustainability, and we have targets etc that we have to meet," he said.

“However, electric vehicles have been problematic for us for some of the reasons that you’ve said, but also around charging and our ability to get chargers and fast chargers in stations,” he said. 

Getting the infrastructure in stations is dependent on the Office of Public Works, who own the garda buildings, to place the chargers at the locations.