Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I too offer my condolences to the Donohoe family and to Adrian Donohoe's Garda colleagues on this tragic occurrence and on this very sad day. Maybe because of the day that is in it we need to have an honest conversation. We need to be honest about the fact that we have a rural policing challenge and the opening of this debate made a disingenuous offer in calling on the Minister to reopen Garda stations, some of which are open for only three hours a day. Some Garda stations in my constituency have been closed, for example, Churchill and Culdaff, which closed last year. Culdaff had been closed for several years. We need to have an honest conversation about the status of the Garda stations. Will reversing this decision reverse the rural challenge? I do not think so.

We need to examine what is happening in the urban areas. In 1997 and 1998 there was a very good urban policing model which deployed community gardaí into areas suffering high unemployment and urban crime. The gardaí built up relationships in the community. They were visible and engaged. They used Garda bicycles and worked in urban areas. There have been examples of very successful Garda patrolling as Deputy Regina Doherty said, in big towns and cities. How do we deal with the need for visibility and engagement in rural areas? We must consider stations such as Churchill where there is a single identifiable garda whom people can contact, whom they know is at the other end of the telephone. We need to have one or two gardaí in that area because the only way to build up trust in the community is by gardaí knowing their communities. A garda is no different from Members on this or the other side of the House. If we do not know what people need we do not have a job in here. Similarly, the gardaí need to know the people in order to gather intelligence and they need to be with people. That is the challenge.

The Minister also needs to examine the structure for dealing with cross-Border crime. There is a cross-Border strategy but we need effective policing there. I have made a few proposals through parliamentary questions this week and I ask him to look at some of the suggestions put forward for members of the gardaí.

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