Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This morning I heard on the news that foreign citizens who are in this country on visas of one sort or another for education or training purposes are queueing around the block waiting for access to the Department of Justice and Equality to renew their visas. I cannot for the life of me understand, particularly in the context of students, the reason the international office in each college cannot be called upon to administer visas. If they collect the relevant information, surely the visas can be administered in a one-stop shop within the universities that the students are attending. Last week a deputation from China, which included the secretary from the department of education in China, visited the Oireachtas. One of their grave concerns was that their citizens who come to Ireland as students have to queue up for hours, and sometimes overnight, in order to get their visas renewed. This is wrong.

I draw attention to the few miserable shillings saved by closing half the Garda stations in the country. In Stepaside, where I live, which is not exactly rural Ireland, we are inundated with burglaries. The loss of that Garda station has been of massive import. I am sure that much more than €500,000 worth of Garda time has been spent on investigating the burglaries that have taken place. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Justice and Equality whether there is a case to be made for reviewing the closure of some of the Garda stations with a view to reopening them.