Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The Minister mentioned the increase in the number of gardaí in County Meath. Yes, the number of gardaí in County Meath has increased in the past couple of years but the population of Meath is skyrocketing so the same point stands. Per capita, the Minister is not maintaining the same pace of growth with the number of gardaí. It is very frustrating as well because the Minister says he has no operational hand in determining where gardaí are located but the Minister for Justice and Equality in this country can set policy objectives for civil servants and the Garda to follow. One of those policy objectives could simply be that there is a fair and even distribution of gardaí throughout the country and that the demographic size of a county has some bearing on and relationship to the number of gardaí it has. I have been here a number of times speaking about this issue. It is radically important that when the new Government is formed with Fianna Fáil, there is a fair distribution of gardaí across the country because if this does not happen, there will be communities and counties such as Meath and Kildare that will suffer radically in the future.

I wish to mention direct provision because it relates to the first point I mentioned. The Minister mentioned that he was unhappy with the direct provision situation in this country. His party has been in government for ten long years. How many years does a party have to be in government for it to act on its unhappiness with regard to a certain issue? When it comes to direct provision, as I understand it, the protocol says that journalists must first ask permission from the Department before they are permitted to interview residents and staff in direct provision centres, so journalists are often refused permission and referred to other direct provision centres rather than the direct provision centres in which they express an interest. Surely in a liberal democracy, when investigative journalists want to talk to individuals, be they staff or residents, they should be able to do so without the Government intervening.

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