Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this motion with regard to a district headquarter Garda station in my constituency, namely, Glenties Garda station, which has been a subject of much speculation over the past number of days following leaks from the Department that the decision may be to close this station as a district station and redeploy any of the additional staff there. Currently, there are between 30 and 40 gardaí working in the district station there, but some of these will be redeployed to the district stations of Milford and Ballyshannon. Milford is approximately 70 miles north east of Glenties and Ballyshannon is approximately 40 miles south of Glenties. As a result of the closure, some of the current six stations under the jurisdiction of Glenties Garda station - Glencolmcille, Carrick, Dungloe, Annagry, Bunbeg and Burtonport - would be left under the jurisdiction of the revised Milford sub-district and the rest under a new extended Ballyshannon sub-district. This would mean that the entire west of Donegal, virtually 90% of the Donegal Gaeltacht, would be left without a station and without the required manpower to deal with serious crime in those areas.

Donegal has been the subject of very serious crime over the past while, and over the past number of weeks in particular. I am very alarmed that this closure may happen, despite rural vandalism and crime. For example, this past weekend, a large number of sheep was stolen from a farm and a dog was mutilated as a result of individuals trying to break into a premises in the St. Johnston area of my constituency. The dog was in a small shed and was barking at the intruders and he was slashed in the throat to such an extent that the walls of the shed were covered in blood. This disgraceful attack on a defenceless and innocent animal illustrates the spiralling crime within the county.

In addition to crimes such as these, there is an ever-increasing presence of drug farms, one of which was found in Laghey in Donegal recently. Some men have been charged with that and we thank the Garda for their efforts in that regard. A car was stolen during the Donegal international rally at the weekend, a post office robbery took place in Bridgend last weekend, there have been a number of burglaries of holiday homes in the county and a number of homes of elderly people have been burgled over the past number of months. Today, sadly, we learned of the murder of a man in his 60s who lives in the Churchill area of County Donegal. The circumstances are not known at this stage, but the man was murdered in a rural part of the county. This must be reason enough to ensure that the current Garda resources available to rural areas of County Donegal are maintained.

I raise this issue tonight because people are living in fear, particularly in rural areas. Many people in my county this evening are worried, particularly elderly people. I have spoken to a number of them on the telephone today, as a result of the announcement of the murder which occurred in the past 24 hours. The Minister cannot in any way reduce Garda resources in west Donegal or any part of our county, given the close geographical connection with Northern Ireland. A total of 97% of the land mass of our county is connected to the North, and on the other side we are connected to the Atlantic Ocean, with all our ports and harbours. We have crime, we have the importation of drugs, and we have cross-Border crime as well. I hope the Minister of State has some reassuring news about this station for my constituents and the people of west Donegal in particular.