Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I speak in favour of the motion. It is a good motion.

I speak as somebody who was a member of the joint policing committee for Gorey when Gorey was a policing district and I want to raise the matter of the mergers that happened on the previous Minister's watch. The attempt to reduce and downsize, of which I have practical experience in my area, is counterproductive on the basis that when merging areas we opted for what was easiest and handiest, but it also turned out to be biggest. The policing district of Enniscorthy, which is a policing district of Gorey and Enniscorthy, has a population of 85,000 people. It is almost as big as County Kilkenny and bigger than many counties throughout the State. It is not working. I am glad to put on the record that it is too big, with a number of major towns and one superintendent. When one makes comparisons with other Garda districts, it seems to be okay for whatever reason that there are Garda districts with 25% of the population of this particular district. I have always questioned the logic of this merger between Gorey Garda district and Enniscorthy Garda district.

I also want to put on the record that the spike in crime in this area is no accident.

I am not being critical of any individual member of the force. However, it is no accident that we do not have a superintendent - a senior member of the police force - sitting in a district that used to be in place. On the other side of the border between counties Wicklow and Wexford, the Arklow Garda district was merged with the Wicklow Garda district. Now we have two Garda districts with a population of approximately 140,000. That is about the size of County Limerick. It is not good enough. I fought this fight as hard as I could. I wrote to the previous Commissioner to look for meetings. To my disappointment, I got no hearing and the senior gardaí who made the decision and chose to ignore any common sense approach towards this ill-judged decision.

The Minister is in this role a few months. She has a capacity to take on board what is being said in a fair and open-minded manner. I hope she considers this matter. It is important. This area is too big. I believe it is the biggest physical Garda district in the State. I am also told that it has the largest population of a rural Garda district in the State. The only other areas that are similar in size are in the Dublin metropolitan area. It is a mistake and it needs to be reviewed. I am not somebody who wants to tear the house down on any particular issue. This was a huge mistake from the outset. While the Garda districts are now merged and it is probably difficult to disentangle that merger, thankfully some semblance of common sense prevailed with the civilian staff. They remained in the Gorey Garda station. The inspector was also retained. The personnel lost was the superintendent. The solution - it is an easy solution if the willingness is there - is to reinstate a superintendent in Gorey Garda station and to have another in the Enniscorthy Garda station. There are examples of multiple superintendents in Garda districts although they may be in different areas or sectors, whether it is traffic or another. The example is there. I ask the Minister to consider it.