Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Moran, is very welcome. We are here to talk about Rush Garda station once again. I have been raising this matter constantly over the past couple of years. Rush is a town in north County Dublin and it has a population of approximately 10,000. It is growing rapidly. Its Garda station was closed in early 2012, causing great disappointment and shock among the people of the town and surrounding area. The surrounding towns - Lusk, Skerries and Donabate - are also expanding rapidly so there is a great need for better and more frequent policing in the area.The closure of Rush Garda station came as a blow to the town. The people of Rush demanded it be reopened and in November 2017, it was announced it would be one of the Garda stations to be reopened following a period of refurbishment and upgrading.

We were told the refurbishment and upgrading would be complete by the end of July 2019 and the Garda station would move from the hands of the Office of Public Works, OPW, to those of An Garda Síochána, which would be responsible for staffing and opening it. We were then told it would happen at the end of September of this year, but it is now the middle of December and Rush Garda station has still not reopened. It has been refurbished and looks great from the outside. The works were ongoing for a number of months and people want to know what is causing the hold-up, why the refurbishment appears to have stalled and why the station has not been handed over. Has the work been done and will the station be handed over soon? If so, when will it reopen?