Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have raised the issue of Garda resources in Meath on several occasions with the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, in this Chamber but that was specifically to do with the personnel requirements for our county which still rank as the lowest in the county, a fact confirmed on Monday of this week when the chief superintendent confirmed that resources allocated to Kildare have relegated us to bottom position when it comes to the number of the gardaí per capitain the division.

The issue I specifically want to raise is the physical resources and the fact that there is no Garda divisional headquarters building for the force in County Meath. I believe County Meath is the only county in the country where there is no divisional headquarters. The net result of having no divisional headquarters building was laid out fairly firmly by our chief superintendent, Fergus Healy, and superintendent Mick Devine at a joint policing committee meeting with our members on Monday of this week.

I want to stress the following point, and it is a little like my exchanges with the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, in respect of personnel.

I make the call for divisional headquarters in Meath on behalf of our chief superintendent, the head of our force in County Meath. He asks for these resources so that he can do his job, and he has stated this openly at a recent meeting that this needs to happen.

The net result of not having a divisional headquarters has real impacts for him and his force because they are not able to conduct policing in Meath in a cohesive and strategic way, and I shall explain why. There are more than 100 members of the force crammed into an outdated district station in Navan. Key services are spread out all over the county away from the county town. The drugs unit is based in Slane. The scene of crime unit is located in a civilian building in Athlumney. The traffic corps is based in Dunshaughlin in the south of the county while the inspector in charge of it is based in Navan. The victims' office and the child protection office are in Athlumney. The key superintendent is based in a Garda station in Navan while the chief superintendent and other members are away in other civilian offices. There is no cohesiveness to the force whatsoever and this has a very real impact in the way policing is carried out in County Meath.

I have argued on several occasions in the Chamber over the last year for more gardaí for the county but if more are allocated there is nowhere in the main station in Navan to put them. In fact, there is nowhere to put the criminals because the building has only four cells. On a Saturday night the four cells are full before midnight and it is like a taxi service bringing the lads around the county to find a room for the criminals. There is only one interview room in Navan station and as a result there is a queue outside to bring them in. Our plain-clothes detectives are located in prefabs to the rear of the station.

I appeal to the Minister to look at the situation and to engage positively with the force so that they can do the job that the Minister, the Department and I are so proud of. We expect gardaí to do a job and they should be properly resourced to do it. Currently they are not. I am here today to speak on their behalf.

I am aware of the role the Office of Public Works, OPW, plays in this process. During a Topical Issue debate on the matter on 17 October 2017, I asked the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, about this divisional headquarters. The Minister told me that he would approach the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Deputy Boxer Moran, about the site and that he would come back to me. That has not happened. I too have mentioned the site to the Minister of State and there has been no word back from either office since last October. This site has been earmarked by the chief superintendent. It could accommodate such a building.

The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, informed me last October that he expected my area to benefit from the capital plan and the envelope of funding that had been put aside. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, indicate by how much Meath will benefit and will we get the divisional headquarters that County Meath requires? Meath is the only county in the State without a divisional headquarters.

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