John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not only in the city but also the suburbs. Tallaght Garda Station, the main Garda station in my constituency along with Rathfarnham Garda station, was designed in the 1970s and built in the 1980s. It is completely outdated. The Garda in Tallaght now take two floors of the Plaza Hotel, adjacent to Tallaght Garda station in order to be able to fulfil the functions they must fulfil. It is not just that. City West, a sprawling suburb which is growing exponentially and really quickly because of strategic housing developments there, has no Garda station. It needs a station serving that particular area and doing so exclusively because it is quite remote from Tallaght. There is a lot of anti-social behaviour, particularly in relation to some of the Luas stops, which I will return to.

I hope that the Minister of State will feed my next point on Garda numbers back to the Minister, and she in turn to the Garda Commissioner. When compared with towns and cities of similar size such as Limerick, Tallaght simply does not have the proportionate amount of gardaí to serve the area and the surrounding area. The numbers in Tallaght are significantly below comparative sized cities. Furthermore, because of duty commitments on the Russian Embassy which is covered by Rathfarnham Garda station, up to ten gardaí per week are committed to surveillance and coverage of the Russian Embassy because of the whole Ukrainian crisis and protests around it. There are quiet protests which are legitimate. But these Garda personnel who are committed to this duty, with two per shift at least, as well as other surveillance coverage, I am sure, have not been compensated for in Rathfarnham Garda station. Therefore every day there are two gardaí over two shifts and, I am sure there are others involved, totally committed to coverage of the Russian embassy who should be on duty, patrolling the streets, and who should be keeping the people of Tallaght and Rathfarnham and all the adjoining areas safe.

See this speech in context