Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and to reducing the numbers within the Garda Síochána to 13,000 by the end of 2013. In addition, his party did not have the courage and commitment to reform the Garda station infrastructure and network. Is the Deputy seriously suggesting that it would be in the interests of good policing for us to retain a police station network and a Garda structure based on decisions relating to locations, etc., which were made by the British Government in colonial times? Is he suggesting that, at a time when Garda numbers are being reduced as a result of the financial disaster that hit this country as a consequence of the appalling decisions made by his colleagues when they were in government, we should keep trained members of the force unnecessarily behind desks in buildings when they could be out policing local communities? Does the Deputy not have the decency to acknowledge that a large number of members of the force could contribute to the provision of front-line services but are currently unable to do so because they are confined to small Garda stations? Will he acknowledge that a station that opens for three hours or less in the morning does not make any substantial contribution to law enforcement or to protecting the community?

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