Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I stated, 155 Garda stations throughout the country have been closed for operational reasons. We take responsibility in maintaining the Garda stations and for the capital budget concerned. Since the Government took the decision on the 155 stations, eight have been retained for alternative State use. The HSE, in one case, and the Ambulance Service, in another, have taken them over and are reconfiguring them to meet their needs. A total of 40 are up for disposal on the open market because they are assets and of some value which we will try to extract for the State. A total of 13 have been assigned for community use. The other day I visited Cliffony, County Sligo, where I was able to hand over the Garda station to a local community group for community use. This is something I have led. There is much potential to assign for further use where a station is of good quality. One does not want to hand over old decrepit buildings which communities would have to maintain. A total of 94 others are under consideration for future use. The more we can get into community hands the better because it reduces the cost to the State of maintenance and security of the buildings. We have seen some innovative proposals coming from communities to take on these stations and the more applications, the better. In some cases, communities applied to us, but then when they realised the obligations they would be taking on in terms of the lease, stepped back from it. There is, however, potential for further growth.