Waterford home to 'third busiest Garda station' in Ireland according to Superintendent

Theft-related offences are the 'main driver' of crime in Waterford, according to An Garda Síochána. 

Superintendent Gavin Hegarty gave an update on recent crime trends at the meeting of the Waterford Local Community Safety Partnership (WLCSP). 

Supt. Hegarty said: "In terms of theft and theft-related offences, theft from shop continues to be our main crime driver, unfortunately." 

There were just under 1,000 incidents reported in 2025. The Superintendent said: "We have Operation Táirge, which is headed by Inspector [Shay] Keevans.

"Waterford Garda Station is probably the third busiest Garda station in the country. Cases processed are just over 2,500 every year. A vast majority of those would be theft from shop offences. 

"We have the highest detection rate in the Eastern region. That takes a lot of work, there's an awful lot of follow-up in relation to commercial theft."

Thefts from vehicles are on the rise, alongside a 23% rise in vehicle interference. 

Supt. Hegarty said: "European-production cars come with immobilizers as standard, it is an EU requirement. Japanese imported vehicles do not have that requirement on the second-hand market.

"Since Brexit, we have seen a diversion of imports and vehicles from the British market into Ireland by the Japanese market."

There was a drop in the amount of burglaries committed in Waterford. Supt Hegarty said: "There was a time in this county we would have had in excess of 1,000 burglaries in the course of a year. Last year we had 96 residential burglaries, averaging under two per week, which is fantastic."

"We had 2,161 health-related calls, which were requests from the National Ambulance Service to attend the calls in advance or with them. Last year we had 21,500 calls across Waterford county, calls to the service centre that required dispatch." 

Under the category of assaults, attempts, threats to murder, Supt. Hegarty said that over 200 incidents were reported per quarter. 

"We're hovering around 200 incidents within the division every quarter. Compared nationally, there are in around 6,000 across the country. We are responsible for about 4% of national crime within the country."

Media presence

At the close of the meeting, Councillor Joe Kelly said it had been "refreshing" to have members of the press at the event.

He commented: “I think it’s refreshing to have members of the press here today to be able to hear almost everything that we’ve said so far. 

"I was reading a recent article where very many [partnerships around the country] are going to remain almost exclusively, I suppose, 'in camera'. I am delighted that we, as our own group, and we talked about it in Dungarvan, that, in as far as possible, our meeting should be public, because we do our business in public."

Cllr Kelly continued: “The media has a very important role informing the public about what the partnership is about and what we're trying to achieve.

“So I'm delighted that we've taken that view, and delighted that our public, not representatives, but newspapers and radios and whoever else is after turning up, are after coming. I'm delighted to see it, and I think it strengthens our democracy in no end that we do, whatever we can, in public.”