Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Before raising some questions about Templemore Garda training college, I would like to commend the Government for prioritising Garda recruitment. Obviously, the accelerated and expanded recruitment campaign is very welcome from a national perspective and will help to address the deficit in Garda numbers.

The increased activity at the training college in Templemore will make an enormous contribution to the economic and social life of Templemore town and its community. This growth in college activity must be sustained into the long term. However, there are currently practical and logistical problems that need to be addressed. There is a need for more bedroom accommodation. Additional classroom space is required and parking around the college has become a nightmare for everyone, including those working in the college and locals living in the town. At present, there are 450 students at the college and another 200 students will start there on 20 November. From February to November of next year, 800 new recruits will attend the college. We now have serious accommodation and facilities problems at the college.

The Department of Justice and Equality is currently preparing a competitive tender for hotels to provide bedroom accommodation and classroom facilities. I am anxious to ensure that the competition will be run within the county of Tipperary and that no excuse will be made for moving some of that work to Dublin or elsewhere. I also want to raise the concerns of the catering and cleaning staff of the college, whom I met recently. They have a hugely increased workload, are completely understaffed and they feel that they are being treated very unfairly. There is a great deal of discontent, which has led to a threatened strike because staff are so overburdened.

I would also ask the Minister to consider a more permanent accommodation solution. The Office of Public Works, OPW, against Garda advice, purchased 200 acres of land in Clonmore, which is about eight miles outside Templemore. This land was purchased at an outrageously high price. The OPW paid in the region of €5 million for it but it has become a green elephant. Nothing has happened there since it was purchased. There was a security patrol on it for years and now it is being leased as farm land.

There was a grandiose pie-in-the-sky plan to relocate the driving school, the firing range and the Garda mounted unit to this land. It was never going to happen. It is not going to happen. I suggest that this land should be sold and that land available adjacent to the Garda College should be purchased to facilitate these plans. Will the Minister confirm that the multi-tiered block of office accommodation will go ahead? I understand that officials in the Department are attempting to invest €2 million in that. Will the Minister tell me what is the status of that project?

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