Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)

The Minister can bring through all the legislation he may care to but unless he commits resources to reform the existing structures, we will waste our time producing hot air.

Deputy Andrews claimed that the majority of gardaí in one-man rural stations have other jobs. He is correct that they do other jobs but this is because they have been redeployed to urban centres and are not available to rural communities. Many rural Garda stations exist in name only, although the Minister's colleague with responsibility for the Office of Public Works has in the past valued many of them. Often, they are closed but for a couple of hours each month, as people realise when they try to renew their gun licences.

My local station in Clonard has been physically closed and is completely dilapidated, yet the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is not prepared to invest any resources in it. Recently, I tried for three weeks to contact a local Garda station by telephone but it did not even have an answering machine. If it had been a residential station, I could have met the garda assigned to it. The Minister should encourage gardaí to reside in rural Garda stations rather than allow them to be closed by stealth.

The Nally case, in which four bench warrants were outstanding, would not have arisen if sufficient resources had been allocated to the Garda Síochána. That is but one example of bench warrants which are not being enforced because people know they will get away with it.

The Minister, during his term in office, could have addressed the civilianisation of the Garda Síochána. More than 556 gardaí are assigned to desk jobs. In the original report of 2001, a garda was described as running the tuck shop in Templemore training college. That is an unacceptable situation which should no longer be tolerated.

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