Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I thank the Minister. I would appreciate if that could be looked at again.

A number of policing fora have been set up in my constituency and they were working quite well and there was quite good co-operation between the gardaí, local community activists and public representatives. I would have liked to have seen wider involvement by people from the Department of Education and Science, the health boards and so on. The policing fora need an assurance of continuity and sustainability. In the absence of any substantial funding — in the case of Rialto, no funding at all — it is difficult for them to be sustained and they cannot deliver for the community. They find it difficult to meet the conventional administrative costs associated with writing up a small report, even communicating with their local representatives and so on. While the policing fora have been positive in getting the community and the gardaí together and have made great strides, they will not continue to be successful unless there is a structure in place to ensure they are sustained and that basically means substantial funding for them.

In regard to the administrative areas, if the boundaries of the Garda districts and the Dáil constituencies were similar, it would probably make life a little easier from an administrative point of view. I would also include in that the former health board areas. One finds oneself in a Dáil constituency dealing with a Garda district which is perhaps outside one's own area. I appreciate that, in the context of this Bill, this cannot be done but it would make life much simpler from an administrative and a public representative's point of view if those two areas coincided.

My colleague, Deputy Costello, addressed the issues of training and education. When I was chairman of the NCEA, one of the responsibilities I was honoured to perform was to confer certificates and diplomas on gardaí graduating from Templemore. It is great there is an opportunity for progression to a third level qualification. Deputy Costello made the point strongly that it would be useful to have a training college in an urban area. Dublin would be a particularly suitable area and he identified a place in his constituency he considers to be particularly appropriate.

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