Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

We can cut to the chase here. I was involved in trying to identify sites with the previous Administration and the OPW. I was disappointed when the Taoiseach decided to combine the defence and justice portfolios. I felt that the Department of Defence was entitled to its own Minister. Surely there must be some logic to it. We were promised Government reform. Clonmel should receive some benefit from the loss of its battalion and the closure of Kickham Barracks. The fact that the same Minister is in charge should also be of assistance. The Minister of State should cut out all the speak and all the spiel. We need to be given the reform that was promised. This land and property is in the hands of the Department of Defence. There is no need for the spiel about the OPW looking for sites and speaking to senior officials in the Garda. I accept that has to be done. We need security at the ready-made site I have mentioned. It could be transferred to the Department of Justice and Equality without any cost. The same Minister is responsible for the two Departments. There is no need for a vote of the Government.

If we have to wait for the OPW to come up with a site, we will be waiting for a long time. I believe that some of the other sites that have been looked at by the OPW are eminently suitable. The OPW deemed that they were not suitable because the money required was not available. I accept that a new Garda district headquarters is needed. We are ready to house it. The gardaí are ready, willing and able to occupy it. The building to which I refer is in pristine condition. I have been in and out of it on Daffodil Day for the past 25 years. I have attended many other public functions there. It is a public building. The people are proud of it. The national flag flew on it until it was taken down recently. We need the flag to fly on it again. If the local gardaí were housed there, they could be proud of their premises. Community groups, school groups and businesses could visit the new Garda headquarters to learn about community policing. Young people could be encouraged to be involved in community alert and neighbourhood watch programmes. A wonderful model could be developed at the site. As the old adage says, "where Tipperary leads, Ireland follows".

I appeal to the Minister, Deputy Shatter, to come to Clonmel to look at the site in question. He should instruct the OPW to dedicate five and a half acres of the 11-acre site for the purposes of the new Garda headquarters immediately. We have been told it would cost €3 million to upgrade the present facility, but I suggest that cannot be done. One cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear. God forgive the terminology. It cannot be done. The ready-made building that is available on this site could, with slight adaptation, be used for these purposes. Above all, it offers plenty of space for a modern functioning Garda station in 2012.

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