Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I too offer my condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe who died so tragically last Friday. His death struck a chord with many people because he was doing what so many gardaí do every day.

It is something with which we can all associate. I know some of the local gardaí in my area very well and know the role they play. This made me think of them, the sacrifices they make and the risk they take in doing their job.

In regard to those same gardaí and their local stations, it was with regret that I found out before Christmas that I would lose two Garda stations in my constituency, in Ballymore Eustace and Ballitore. The Minister will be aware that when the rumours first sounded I was concerned about losing any stations and believed this was not the right thing to do. My main concern was community policing because I believe the local garda has a local knowledge that is built up and there is an area of crime prevention that is very hard to quantify. Trust in a local garda accumulates. Given the closure of these Garda stations, in working closely with the chief superintendent and Garda authorities locally I have since realised that great efforts have been made to ensure that Garda cover for these areas will remain the same. I am very happy these efforts have been made. Gardaí have shown themselves to be very resourceful in the way they are doing this.

I welcome the six new cars for the Kildare division, in particular the one going to Kilcullen which will help gardaí there to cover the Ballymore Eustace area and will also have an impact on the Ballitore area. There is also the significant amount of some €600,000 which was spent on Castlewarden station recently by the OPW, one of the last Garda stations to have substantial work done.

This motion of Fianna Fáil is disingenuous. That party agreed with the troika to drop Garda numbers from 14,500 to 13,000, but never made any provision to lose any of the Garda stations. It is not practical to think we could hold on to the number we had, the same number we inherited from the British State. To be honest, if we were starting with a blank canvas we would not have anything near that number of Garda stations, given the comparisons with Northern Ireland and Scotland which, respectively, have one station per 17,000 and one per 15,000 people. Here, after the cuts and the closures to which we refer, there will be one Garda station for every 8,000 citizens.

The Minister, Deputy Shatter, is aware of the points colleagues and I have made in the past. Garda numbers in County Kildare are very low in comparison with those in other counties; they are too low. There is no chief superintendent in the country who is willing to give up gardaí but pressure must come from the Commissioner. There must be some redistribution of Garda numbers and they are badly needed in County Kildare. I ask that this be considered.

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