Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The context of the request for the report was a discussion at the meeting. I asked the acting Commissioner about the sale of some Garda stations and whether there was proper evaluation because we may need some of the accommodation at some point in the future. I looked for the reason some stations over others found their way onto the Office of Public Works, OPW, list. There is a long list of stations. Once it is decided a station will be sold, it goes to the OPW. The OPW has a list of the stations sold and how much was received for them. Stepaside Garda station never found its way onto that list and there are probably others that did not either. At the time, the acting Garda Commissioner told me there was a difficulty with the increase in the number of personnel and that there would be accommodation issues. The point I made was it does not make sense to sell something if we must buy it back at a point when it will be more expensive. It was in this context we sought the criteria.

I know there were six stations because the reply to a parliamentary question I asked last November stated the Minister requested the Garda Commissioner, while fully cognisant of her statutory functions on the distribution of Garda resources in the State, to identify six stations for reopening on a pilot basis, in line with the commitment in A Programme for a Partnership Government. The reply also states the pilot scheme was intended to feed into a wider review of the Policing Authority's work. My understanding is the Garda decides what resources it needs in the context of the funding available. It is valid for us to try to figure out the criteria, and this is what was being asked. We could find ourselves in a situation where stations were sold that should not have been, and how will we know whether that is the case if we do not know the criteria? It was valid to ask this question.

If we do not understand the criteria we can draw only one conclusion. In August, an article written by Juno McEnroe appeared in the Irish Examiner. The article, which is an interview with the Minister of State, Deputy John Halligan, states, "The then-Taoiseach elect told Shane Ross he would help get Stepaside Garda Station reopened, a move which weeks later the alliance’s putative leader announced with much publicity." We just want to know whether the stations are being opened for very good policing reasons, such as crime. It is reasonable for us to know the criteria, and the acting Commissioner must have known what the criteria were that day.