Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Finally I want to touch on the issue, already aired, of Garda stations. Can the Commissioner maybe reconsider the policy on this? I will give an example from my own constituency. Senator Heffernan is aware of this also. The Askeaton district in Limerick was merged into two neighbouring districts and the Garda station was effectively closed, operational for one or two hours a day. There was a public meeting six months ago and chief superintendent Dave Sheahan and the newly appointed superintendent Tom O'Connor came along. The community was very annoyed because there had been a spike in crime in the general area and they gave the members of An Garda Síochána who turned up that night a hard time. The chief superintendent, in fairness to him, undertook to go away and revisit the opening hours of the Garda station, within the capacity that he had in the area.

There were about 400 people at the public meeting. That was six months ago. There was a follow-up public meeting two weeks ago to which 20 people turned up. So the situation had greatly improved and there was credit due to the Garda Síochána and everybody within the community and the community council. I think there was a lesson to be learned from that. The station had effectively been closed and that situation was reversed so that it was open pretty much through normal operating hours every day and the public felt they were getting a better service and indeed they know that there is a Garda presence and visibility. That was the big issue that came to all of us when up to 150 Garda stations were closed, that there was a diminution of the presence and service in the particular area, whether it was perceived or not. I think, in particular, in relation to Stepaside and to Whitehall and to many of the stations that were closed around the country the Commissioner should revisit the issue. I know that it will not be practical in some of the locations because the properties have been sold by the OPW. I want to offer the Commissioner that as an experience that I have had, and I am sure others have had, as a public representative. I urge the Commissioner to reconsider opening some of them on a limited basis as a first instance and compare the results based on the experience of that.