Mr. John O'Driscoll:

-----being that which has been given to the Policing Authority and for which it is to use the services of the Garda Inspectorate. There will be a total review of Garda boundaries, which will constitute the most significant piece of work in this regard since the foundation of the State and the establishment of those boundaries. The way in which the criteria are worded and the task given to the Policing Authority are such that it is to be informed by the reopening of a mere six stations. We are aware that others in the debate on rural crime recently suggested that it would perhaps be appropriate that all Garda stations that were closed would now be reopened. We must take into account that the closing of these stations took place at a time of austerity. It was the 2011 Government's decision to embark on a detailed, comprehensive review of expenditure that gave rise to An Garda Síochána closing stations at a time when we did not foresee that we would potentially have the recruitment campaigns that have now been reintroduced.

Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy, when he appeared before an Oireachtas committee recently, was talking about current priorities in putting resources into particular locations. There will be potentially 800 extra gardaí on the beat before any of these stations are reopened. Even tomorrow, I think, an additional 211 gardaí will come out of training in Templemore, approximately 88 of whom, I think, will go to the Dublin metropolitan region. It is quite possible that Pat Leahy's priorities that he spoke about can be met starting from tomorrow, and all his other priorities may be well met before any new station is opened or any closed station reopened in the Dublin metropolitan region. There will be 800 extra personnel and 500 additional civilians in 2018. We now have all these additional resources and, where stations were closed because of a scarcity of resources and with no potential insight at that time-----