Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What they did not realise was that no garda had been in that station for the previous four years. In Stepaside I think crime actually went down when the Garda station closed. The same was true in County Roscommon where some stations closed and the gardaí allocated the resources themselves. I do not have any say in that and thankfully the days are gone when I could ring a Garda station asking for the time of day. Thankfully we no longer have political interference in the affairs of the Garda and on how it disperses its manpower. That is a good thing. We have to look at the figures. From what I read in the newspapers last week, crime actually came down in Stepaside.