Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Cabra is situated in such a place that when gardaí need to be reallocated to other parts of the north side, it usually has to take the brunt of that. With the recent spate of protests, which I am reluctant to call them, or the engagements in which the Garda was involved, it was Cabra Garda station that lost some of its gardaí to go to those scenarios. Cabra is also situated beside the Phoenix Park so in terms of going to police Áras an Uachtaráin, Cabra loses its gardaí. That is also a situation that happens with the gardaí outside Leinster House; Pearse Street gardaí are reallocated up here. That is something we need to consider where there are buildings that need to be policed by gardaí on a 24-hour basis. It should not be local and community Garda stations that lose their gardaí in those instances.

I take the Minister's point on the action that has been taken with a new Garda patrol car. That will make a difference but it is there because there has been a spate of increased antisocial behaviour there. I also want to make the following request. A new Garda station will be opened on O'Connell Street and I implore the Minister to ensure that as that Garda station is staffed the gardaí are not taken from surrounding stations such as Store Street and Cabra. That has a genuine knock-on effect and there is a belief in some of these communities that when issues happen, such as the new surveillance on O'Connell Street following the "Prime Time" documentary, issues simply get pushed up and away. We need more community policing on the streets. When they are there our gardaí do a good and effective job and we need more of them. The community has a right to want to feel safe and protected at a time when it needs that protection. We need to do whatever we can to improve pay and conditions to ensure we can recruit gardaí and people into our Garda force because we need more of them.

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