Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

My party would agree but we must first examine speaking time. The legislation introduced by Senator Power, on behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, is well thought out and I hope that the Government will accept it. Having two senior Ministers present today is a good departure. It is either a feast or a famine but we are more than happy to have them here to discuss the legislation introduced by my group.

I have a question for the Leader on the closure and restricted hours of Garda stations. As of 30 April, 31 Garda stations closed and another ten have restricted hours. I raised the issue in the House on numerous occasions, as did many of my colleagues. The Minister for Justice and Equality is also planning another raft of 40 Garda station closures, plus further restrictions. The loss of a Garda station in a community, be it rural or urban, has a huge knock-on effect. I also raised the issue on the Adjournment with the Minister directly and I am concerned about his argument that restricted stations will not be open to the public from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. thus allowing more gardaí to be on the street. That was a spurious claim to put it mildly.

I have since found it to be fact that the restricted stations will be closed after 9 p.m. and any person detained or arrested, in any of the areas covered by the restricted Garda stations, will have to be driven to the nearest full-time station thus taking up the time of three gardaí. Let us take, for example, the closest Garda station to me, Malahide, where the only Garda car in the town will have to be driven seven miles to Coolock in order to book in a prisoner but will keep three gardaí off the street. All of the stations that have been closed, plus the restricted ones, will spend thousands of euro because the superintendents in each area have asked for a quote for CCTV cameras and security systems to be installed in order that they can secure these stations. When the Minister responded to me he said that there would be insignificant monetary savings from these changes and he was purely doing it to protect the public and allow more gardaí on the beat. That is patently not the case. There are fewer gardaí on the beat because they must spend their time driving detained person to full-time stations and hundreds of thousands of euro will be spent on installing security systems in the Garda stations that have been closed and restricted. This makes no sense.

I am pleased the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, is to attend the House this afternoon to deal with important legislation, which we will facilitate. He also needs to explain why the information in the responses he gave to me and to our justice spokesperson was incorrect. There will be fewer gardaí on the beat and not only will there be no monetary savings, but his proposal will cost the Exchequer. As indicated at the recent Garda Representative Association conference, it is putting citizens' lives and safety at risk. I am tabling an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister for Justice and Equality attend the House in order to explain the situation with regard to the Garda stations that have closed as of 30 April, the stations that are restricted and the criteria he will use to close a further 40 stations throughout the country.