Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Commissioner and his colleagues. I thank them for the excellent work they do. I acknowledge the great work every day of the week of rank and file gardaí up and down the country.

I have listened very carefully to the argument put by the Commissioner for the closure of Garda stations. He has contradicted himself a number of times today. He states that this is not about saving money but ensuring better policing on the ground. He states also that there will be no withdrawal of services whatsoever, that if a community has a Garda coming into the station for a certain number of hours a day and the community at large are aware that the Garda will be at the station on a Tuesday and Friday for so many hours. The Commissioner states he will not take away that service.

I have heard the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, discuss this issue also. I thank the Commissioner for being more forthright than the Minister has been but the Commissioner states the Garda will be in community centres, in the post office. The Minister stated they will be in the back of Garda vans. Will the Commissioner explain how that will save money? Why shut down the station in the first instance? We are talking about small stations, predominantly one and two bedroom units. If they are for sale, nobody will buy them. One cannot walk away and let them fall into disrepair because the local authority will take action under the Derelict Sites Acts. The buildings must be painted, the electricity will be left on because the majority of the buildings have electric heating and the heating must be kept on for so many hours a day. The stations will also have to be maintained. Will we save money? Why are we shutting down the station in the first instance?

The Commissioner has not given me a practical, sensible answer on the good of taking a garda out of the station and putting him in a community centre. The Minister went so far as to say it would be good for the community because the Department will pay rent to those running the community centres. It is crazy to move the garda from the Garda station into the community centre or worse into the back of a Garda van and the people are going to come-----