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

The report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland was published yesterday and, along with the appointment of a new Garda Commissioner, we hope that it will herald a new dawn for policing in Ireland. However, the Garda needs resources, as the Minister well knows, and gardaí are still forced to work in substandard conditions, nowhere more so than in County Meath. The hovel in which more than 100 gardaí in Navan are expected to work, which the Minister of State, Deputy English, knows as well, is highlighted on the front page of the Meath Chroniclethis morning by none other than Superintendent Mick Devine who makes reference to "medieval working conditions". Both he and Chief Superintendent Fergus Healy are prepared to go public and call this out. I support them and I have pointed out that criminals held in the multimillion euro Garda station in Wexford have better conditions than gardaí across all the stations in County Meath. Will the Minister back the call of Chief Superintendent Fergus Healy, Superintendent Mick Devine and all of the Garda management in County Meath for a new divisional headquarters for the county?

In a previous response to me, the Minister for Justice and Equality said there is a divisional headquarters in County Meath. The Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, and Minister of State, Deputy English, both know there is none. How, when the chief superintendent says we need a divisional headquarters in Meath, can the Minister for Justice and Equality say we have one?

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