Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government is committed to building safer and stronger communities across Ireland. For that reason, we allocated funding in the budget to recruit 1,000 gardaí this year. We believe this will be more than enough to cover retirements and resignations. The deployment of gardaí and the location of senior gardaí is a matter for the Garda Commissioner rather than the Government, which is as it should be. However, I will mention this issue to the Garda Commissioner the next time I see him. I do see him quite regularly.

With regard to Tipperary in general, there is an issue with the building project at Clonmel Garda station being delayed because it is part of a public private partnership, PPP, project. That is an issue of concern to Deputy Cahill and also to Senator Ahearn and Deputy Lowry. That is something we are working on. The development is tied up with a PPP project. We are examining whether we can separate it out and get work at the new Garda stations in Clonmel and Macroom under way as soon as possible.

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