Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have to agree. This is not the first time I have raised this issue. The amalgamation of the Louth division with Cavan and Monaghan will not work at all. The Louth division will include parts of east Meath. One superintendent with responsibility for serious crime, who will be based in Bailieborough, will have to deal with the entire region. I understand the streamlining, but Donegal will not be included with Sligo and Leitrim, something that was due to happen. I understand Kerry will also be a stand-alone division. What is happening does not make sense.

We all know of the issues there have been in Louth, in particular the drug feud. We know the gardaí who have been lost - I mentioned Tony Golden and Adrian Donohoe earlier. Three gardaí in Dundalk were injured recently when their patrol car was rammed by a stolen car. Alongside dealing with rosters, this is a particular issue that needs to be addressed. There needs to be engagement with the Commissioner. I am not entirely sure how the review process has operated, but it has worked for certain areas and sense has prevailed. I am fine with streamlining, but what is proposed is too big, in particular given some of the issues in Louth.

If we are talking about crime, I want to mention the danger of organised crime and drugs from an economic and societal point of view. We hope that the citizens' assembly will go to good places as regards harm reduction, systems being health led and best practice, such as in Portugal. We will need to make sure that resources are applied in order to bring that about. Some of this would need to happen with engagement on an international basis, in particular on a European level. Ireland, even on a 32-county basis, is very small. Certain solutions would obviously work better if they operated on an international basis. I would be interested in hearing whether there has been engagement.

We want to know more about what happened with the joint task force involving the Garda, the Army Ranger wing, the Naval Service and all the rest. The more of those types of operations we can see, the better. We know policing alone will not deal with the issues facing us.

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