Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Commissioner. I have less than one minute left. I want to dovetail with Deputy Colm Burke's point in respect of Macroom. The issue relating to Macroom is important for policing in an entire region, as the Commissioner can imagine. It is quite literally policing from the Kerry border over to the Waterford border and north to counties Limerick and Tipperary. That is not an insignificant area. It is arguable that Fermoy, which is the pre-existing divisional headquarters in County Cork, is a building that was fit for purpose when it was constructed but that is no longer suitable. Until Macroom comes on stream, an increasing number of gardaí will be going into pre-existing infrastructure. I wonder what kind of affect that has on the morale of gardaí when they are going into buildings that are substandard or not fit for purpose. What we want is modern buildings for gardaí to police from. That would be my humble opinion. I am sure if one is in a fit-for-purpose building, one's morale is that bit higher and so forth.

I support Deputy Colm Burke's point about the need to ensure resources are deployed. I might have views with regard to Fermoy and Mallow, for instance. I might be a bit parochial about the fact that we found it strange that it was going to Macroom, but that is a matter of policy. We need to ensure that resources are deployed in terms of capital expenditure on buildings, however, and they need to be rolled out as quickly as possible. That is the general point in support of Deputy Colm Burke.