Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A recent front-page headline in one of the newspapers local to us Lily Whites told us that Kildare has one of the highest levels of burglaries in the country. That is coupled with the fact that Kildare consistently has the lowest number of gardaí per head of population in the country. Those two statements are absolutely not unrelated. To hear yesterday that Kildare is losing its divisional headquarters was an absolute shock. Kildare has twice the population of Laois and Offaly but the Garda headquarters and all its resources on a regional level is moving to Portlaoise. Cynics might say that is because there is a Minister in Laois-Offaly and there is none in Kildare. I say those cynics are right. We have not had a Minister in Kildare to be able to shout for and demand those resources. It is absolutely wrong that Kildare is losing this key area of responsibility.

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