Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the fact that the Minister has confirmed the Cabinet will make the decision on the report. Given that it is a Cabinet decision, perhaps it is time we looked at this across all Departments. There are public buildings in every part of the country and every Department jealously protects those public buildings. This issue came up this morning at the committee. Why do we not look at those public buildings and use available space in them for a Garda presence? Equally, we could look at using space in Garda stations for the presence of other organisations, such as Leader companies in offices held by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in rural areas. If everybody gets out of this silo mentality in respect of State property, we can maintain services and a presence in a much more cost effective way.

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