Dáil debates

Tuesday, 5 November 2019

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate

Garda Divisional Headquarters

7:00 pm

Photo of Alan KellyAlan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I believe in modernisation of An Garda Síochána. I also believe that we need to see considerable change. I am not one of those who come to the Chamber to practise NIMBYism, as my track record will show. I do not believe in political policing. I believe in transparency in decision-making. Where a decision such as this is made and it is not transparent across the criteria, it has to be questioned. That is what this Chamber is for. I listed the criteria and I challenge anyone to say that, when applied, these criteria place Ennis in County Clare above Thurles in County Tipperary.

The Minister made a statement about his time as a Deputy which is frankly not relevant. He said that locating the Laois-Offaly divisional headquarters in Portlaoise rather than Tullamore made no difference. There is some difference between the distance from Tullamore to Portlaoise and the distance from Carrick-On-Suir to Ennistymon. The former is approximately 36 km while the latter approximately 180 km. The point is the scale and size. We have divisional headquarters in Limerick and Galway, and rightly so given the scale of the cities and areas they cover. We then have another headquarters on the west coast in Ennis. The largest inland county, Tipperary, has a major issue with crime owing to the length of motorway there. The decision is bizarre given that Tipperary places higher than Clare under all of the criteria.

Is it any wonder that the gardaí to whom I have spoken at all levels are so disheartened by this decision? That is a fact. If the Minister listens to the GRA and to other garda representative bodies, they will tell him this.

It is good practice to review decisions. While I do not agree with what has been done here, I am not asking for it to be changed now. However, I want to know when the Department first became aware of this decision and whether there was any other iteration of it beforehand. Will the Minister ensure that, given the Garda Commissioner's statements, after a number of years all of this will be audited to see if this is the optimal way to organise Garda divisions?

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