A total of 13 Garda cars will be taken out of use across Galway city and county by the end of the year – the announcement comes in the same week as a major clampdown on motoring offences in the western region. Just one new Garda car will be allocated to the county during 2012 and this is likely to be located in the Ballinasloe area

There are currently a total of 91 vehicles attached to the Galway Garda Division and 36 of these are marked patrol cars.

The Department of Justice has revealed that 13 of the marked patrol cars will be decommissioned by the end of the year – this is mainly due to the fact that they are close to reaching 300,000 kilometres on the clock.

High ranking Garda officers were in Oranmore late last week to launch Operation Focus which is an initiative to clampdown on drunk driving, speeding and other motoring offences to further reduce deaths on the road.

But a Galway TD said that such an operation would be seriously compromised with such a reduction in the number of Garda cars.

Deputy Noel Grealish said that there was a promise given by the Minister for Justice that rural patrols would be maintained in the wake of the closure of a number of Garda stations.

See full story in this week's Connacht Tribune.