Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is scandalous the electoral district with the second-largest population in County Meath does not have a full-time Garda station. That is indefensible. I cannot put it any more simply than to say Laytown and the wider east Meath area demands and needs a 24-7 Garda station. As all present are aware, three weeks ago, Jamie O'Neill, a young leaving certificate student from Bettystown, was viciously beaten in a savage and unprovoked attack on Bettystown beach. The policing district is managed out of Ashbourne rather than out of Drogheda Garda station, which is nearby. The call that was made to the Garda about the incident ended up in Kildare. This is madness.

There are 22 gardaí in Laytown, up only marginally on the number in 2016. When the station is closed, the area is managed by mobile dynamic patrols. Until the crash and the cutbacks of 2008, the station had its own superintendent. In fact, there were plans to build a brand new station in the Laytown area to service the rapidly expanding east Meath and south Drogheda area, but responsibility was then given to Ashbourne, 30 km away, to manage Laytown.

The population of the area has trebled since 1996. It is not the small rural picture-postcard hamlet it used to be, although it is still very beautiful and one of my favourite places. However, it has got bigger and the challenges have become more extreme, but the services have not been provided to respond to the population changes. It has suffered more than its fair share of poor planning decisions and poor public policymaking in the past 20 years. The people of the area are entitled to security, a full-time station and to have their demands met as taxpayers and citizens. If the Government does not agree with the emotional arguments in favour of providing a full-time station, it should just look at the figures and how rapidly the population of the area has expanded in the past three years and how it will expand again in the coming years in the context of the new draft Meath development plan.

See this speech in context