Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It might be appropriate that the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, is taking this because he is in charge of the national drugs strategy. The issue of drugs is an important issue throughout the country but on the north side of Dublin, it causes great heartache.

In June 2019 on a visit to political leaders in Dublin Bay North, the assistant Garda commissioner confirmed that a Garda station was to be located in the Dublin 13 or Dublin 17 area to serve the vast expanding community in Clongriffin and Belmayne. It is expected an extra 50,000 people will be inhabiting the area in the coming years. We have had several successful campaigns in that area for the establishment of a second level school. We now have an Educate Together second level school and we are happy about that.

I was involved with the local community, including the community in Clongriffin through the Clongriffin Community Association, in having a petition to ensure we would get a Garda station for the area based on community infrastructure. We were delighted when the assistant Garda commissioner announced that negotiations with the Office of Public Works, OPW, on a particular site at the corner of Northern Cross were ongoing and that a Garda station would be located on the site in the coming years.

Aligned with that, a Government commitment was made during the general election that a Mulvey-style commission would be established on the north side and in Drogheda as a reaction to a murder spree in both those geographic locations. What I was trying to do, and what Deputy Ged Nash, who was then a Senator, was trying to say at the time was that the response to drugs and gangland murder should not be one of Garda resources only but also required an in-depth discussion about education, empowerment, oral language, youth development and housing along the lines of what happened with Kieran Mulvey's commission in the north inner city. We wanted that approach to be replicated on the north side and in Drogheda. After months of making repeated calls for such a commission in the Seanad - I was a Senator at the time - the then Minister for Justice and Equality agreed the Government would do so if returned to office.

This commission is desperately needed. While I acknowledge these are difficult times and establishing a commission at this time would be problematic because of the national crisis we are in, poverty, disadvantage and drug crime still exist and people still have murder on their minds. I would like an update on that promised, pledged and proposed Garda station. At what stage is the process? When will the station be opened? When can the community of Dublin 13 and 17 be satisfied that the campaign, which they were thrilled to see reach a successful conclusion in June 2019, will result in the next stage of the process and the opening of the doors of a fully staffed and resourced Garda station in this expanding area on the north side of Dublin?

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