Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to have an opportunity to raise this issue. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary. I am a little disappointed that the Minister of State, Deputy Martin Mansergh, is not present, but I understand he is out of the country on State business.

I will outline the crux of the problem. There is a national Garda station building programme but it is a complete mystery who is involved in it, who is responsible for it and how it is funded and operated. I have been a Member of the Oireachtas for 14 years. When we were trying to develop Buncrana Garda station I succeeded in arranging a meeting between the Departments of Social and Family Affairs, the Office of Public Works, the office of the Garda Commissioner and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in an attempt to drive the project.

I raise this issue about Carndonagh Garda station because development of the Buncrana and Carndonagh Garda stations was to be advanced as a joint project. I had a meeting about Buncrana Garda station and I got all the parties around the same table. I noted at the meeting that Carndonagh Garda station could have fitted on the table at which we were seated. The assistant Garda commissioner said I was not telling the full truth. He said that Carndonagh Garda station would fit one and a half times on the table. There has been an ongoing difficulty with the development of this Garda station and I am trying to ascertain how it can be moved to permanent accommodation.

My lobbying has achieved 24-hour status for the station in Carndonagh covering the north Inishowen area. In 2008 the priority was to acquire a site at significant cost. By 2009, the site unavailable for various reasons, a situation for which I do not blame anyone. Now in 2010, opportunities for permanent accommodation have been offered to the OPW, the Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, yet a Government agency is spending €175,000 on a site that everyone knows is not appropriate for what some regard as a small job, namely, the provision of a new portakabin structure at the rear of the station to accommodate male and female locker facilities, ablution facilities, including accessibility features, a kitchen area and a communications room. The resulting modification of the existing station will include enhancements to the public office in the form of ramps and alterations to the public counter to provide greater accessibility, while the former communications room will be converted for use as a sergeant's office and administration office and will provide for additional ablution facilities. The former sergeant's office will then be available for use by local management at their discretion.

This is a waste of €175,000 at a time when our economics are such that we should not be wasting money. I am aware of alternatives that are not that much more expensive and which would yield a permanent solution. In the words of one senior local garda, it would fulfil the future needs of north Inishowen policing. I have been asking landowners and brownfield site owners to offer alternative sites to the Office of Public Works. My greatest difficulty is that I have been providing this type of information to the OPW, the Garda authorities, the office of the Garda Commissioner and the local gardaí, yet I am unable to find out why a decision was made to go with completely the wrong choice.

The residents of Carndonagh and north Inishowen are up in arms, rightly so. They are very distraught. They are afraid that this small job will result in the major job being deferred for more than a decade. I do not believe this is the case and the Garda Commissioner has given me his assurance that he wants the best facilities for his people. I also have correspondence from the Minister of State, Deputy Martin Mansergh, on this matter. I suggest we give the portakabin to someone else or some deserving cause and get the proper solution now in Carndonagh. I am sure the OPW would be inundated with suggestions. It seems that everyone has prioritised this scheme, it is included in the 2010 building programme and yet the real solution has neither been looked at nor sought. We have something that no one - local gardaí or local residents - is happy with. The gardaí have had to move out of the town. There has been a threat of direct action against drug dealers in the Inishowen peninsula. While I do not wish to hype the situation because I believe our gardaí to be well organised and I have received a personal guarantee from the Garda Commissioner that the area will be patrolled, none the less people are scared unnecessarily. There are local solutions that could have been achieved and for which I fought but which have not been delivered. I will continue to fight and this is the reason I have raised this matter to find out who is responsible for the building programme and why it is such a mystery.