Portlaoise Garda Station closes as redevelopment works gets underway

PORTLAOISE Garda Station closed yesterday Thursday 6 March as the €24 million redevelopment works on the station got underway.

The last prisoner, a 32-year old Mountmellick man, who was detained overnight, was led out through the doors at 10am and brought before yesterday's morning's sitting of Portlaoise District Court.

The last of the 200 or so staff pulled the door behind them for the final time as well. 

They will now be temporarily redeployed to Grattan House on the Dublin Road in Portlaoise while the redevelopment work, which is expected to take up to three years to complete, takes place.

Two portable buildings at the front of the station on the Abbeyleix Road will continue to be manned to assist the public.

Prisoners awaiting court appearances in Portlaoise will now be held in holding cells in Abbeyleix Garda Station, Tullamore Garda Station or in Birr Garda Station.

The planned works will see a number of buildings on the existing site demolished and rebuilt. A three-storey office block will be constructed on the army site, at the rear of the garda station. The two-storey gymnasium that was built in 1910 will be demolished, as will two other two-storey buildings that were added in the 1980s. Originally built in 1808 as a military barracks, the main building will also be extensively refurbished.