Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 November 2017

Public Accounts Committee

Reopening of Garda Stations: Discussion

9:00 am

Photo of Marc MacSharryMarc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a matter of fact that the serving assistant commissioner responsible for this area in advance of it being opened is saying that we have other priorities. I ask this of the acting Commissioner. Are our priorities agile and flexible enough to adjust and adapt to the needs of assistant commissioners and front-line personnel or are we bound by decisions of predecessors or archaic advice which no longer concurs with the up-to-date front-line demands but, as a result, the acting Commissioner sticks to them? The reality is the acting Commissioner has given an order and confirmed we are opening Stepaside, despite the fact that criteria set by someone who had nothing to do with it were followed and the serving assistant commissioner, cognisant of the most up-to-date position on the ground, is saying he has other priorities.

Does Mr. Ó Cualáin not have plenipotentiary status to the extent he can engage in some leadership and state he is adjusting and changing this, that he is not opening Stepaside and that he is putting all of the resources into Cherrywood or wherever else?

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