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

In his reply the Minister of State has said, "The Minister for Justice and Equality has been informed by the Garda authorities that the divisional headquarters for the Meath division is based in Navan". There is no divisional headquarters in Navan. This is why I am here. The chief superintendent outlined this fact to the joint policing committee meeting on Monday. I am in the House constantly arguing on their behalf. It is really annoying that nobody in this building seems to listen to the force. It would be different if I was coming in here to attack the Ministers for a lack of resources by making political charges. This man has spoken publicly on Monday of this week that he cannot cohesively or effectively do the job he is expected to do with the current set up. I keep going back to this point.

The chief superintendent has called for more personnel and is now calling for a proper divisional headquarters. Meath is the only county in the State without a divisional headquarters. This is coming from the leader of a force that the Government is here to support. The chief superintendent feels so passionately about it that he is bringing all of the members of the joint policing committee, JPC, on a tour to Wexford to see what a proper divisional headquarters building looks like. He wants to clearly illustrate to the elected members, and to the civilian and community leaders on that JPC, how a force in another part of the State is well resourced to the tune of a €30 million building, and yet the Meath force is expected to work out of a multiple of prefabs dotted around the county.

In his reply this evening the Minister of State said that, "The Minister for Justice and Equality has been informed by the Garda authorities that the divisional headquarters for the Meath division is based in Navan". I have read to the House where all the different units are located: the traffic corps is in Dunshaughlin, the drugs unit is in Slane and different units are based elsewhere. They are all over the county. There is no divisional headquarters. The Topical Issue speaks to the fact that there is none and we require a building for the force to be able to do its job.

At Monday's JPC we discussed the Meath divisional plan. The document cannot, however, be implemented properly if the men and women of the force are not properly resourced. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, ask the Minister to make sure the force in Meath is properly resourced so it can meet the challenges of the job it is expected to do. There is no point in Garda authorities spinning a line to the Minister for Justice and Equality saying there is a divisional headquarters in Navan, when quite clearly there is not. If the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and the Minister of State would like to come to Navan we can show them that no such building exists. This is why I am here tonight arguing the case.

Last October I was given a promise that the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Boxer Moran, would revert to me on the examination of the site. It is not acceptable that not even a courtesy has been shown to come back to me since then with regard to the examination of the site as an option for building a divisional headquarters for County Meath.

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