Mr. John Twomey:

It will be a combination of both. The gardaí stationed in all of the Garda stations that were closed were merely transferred to the nearest station. They continued to police the same area but from a different location.

Having said that, over the course of the next 12 to 18 months we are going to get somewhere in the region of an additional 1,000 gardaí. Some of those will be used to go into those areas. There will be a review and analysis of each area and what has changed. Relevant questions include whether there has been an increase in population or increased crime. All these factors feed into the number of gardaí that we assign to any area.

This is fluid and it changes every week. We will continue in this way. This is a process we undertake currently with all communities, irrespective of the six Garda stations to be reopened. We look at any area where the population is growing and we put additional personnel in there. This may involve some of the people who were previously stationed there, if they are still in service. It will also involve some of the additional resources we will gain over the next 12 months.