Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman.

I wish to raise two specific issues with the Commissioner. In his initial contribution Mr. Harris touched on the concern expressed across the country that all superintendents would be based in the divisional headquarters. I know that he stressed that that would not be the case in this instance, but I am not naïve enough to believe that will happen in reality. I have heard many heads of organisations state before an Oireachtas committee that staff would remain deployed across the country. Whether it happens by osmosis or otherwise, over time they drift to the location of the central headquarters. I have a genuine concern about the divisional headquarters based in Roscommon. I find what Mr. Harris has said, that a new approach is being taken, very surprising because on occasion his predecessors tried to move the divisional headquarters from Roscommon to Castlebar. That concern is being raised again.

They tried to move the divisional headquarters from Mullingar to Navan and, funnily enough, that is there again. I believe that over time, we will see all of the superintendents based in the divisional headquarters. If we look at the alignment being proposed, we can see the likelihood is that the superintendents will be based in Castlebar and Navan. Project Ireland 2040 talks about designating Athlone as a growth centre and how all Government policy must take that into account. It has not taken it into account on this occasion. With this reconfiguration, the likelihood is that the nearest superintendent to Athlone will be in Thurles in County Tipperary, which is not good enough. We have a structure where the divisional headquarters in Roscommon is slap bang in the middle of this proposed revision. It would make sense to service the three counties by locating it there and I hope that would be reflected in any decision and would leave a divisional headquarters within 30 km of Athlone.

With regard to the pilots in Galway and Mayo, two rural districts, is there a superintendent in every one of those district headquarters because that is the concern we all have? I welcome the increased footprint and more resources going to local Garda stations but the decisions will be made by superintendents and chief superintendents, these are very large geographic areas and it is important that these headquarters are located as centrally as possible within the various divisions.

Can the Commissioner give a commitment that there will be no barrier to staff transferring between the divisions? We were provided with those assurances when the HSE was divided up across the country and yet staff could not move from one geographic area to another. I want a commitment from the Commissioner that if someone in Meath or Louth wants to transfer to Roscommon, Mayo or Galway, the fact that this person is in a different division will be not be a barrier to that transfer.