Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome. While the wording of my Commencement matter refers to a Garda station in Donegal, a station is not necessarily what we need. This is more to do with the Garda review that is taking place across the country. I am here to pitch on behalf of the people in Donegal and also a representative group that wrote to me recently, namely, the Donegal Public Participation Network chaired by Mr. Joe Boland. The network represents 698 community groups in the county and recently made representations to the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, on the proposed new policing network that proposes to merge Donegal with Sligo and Leitrim. It was to be the Donegal-Sligo-Leitrim division and now I believe it is to be the Sligo-Leitrim-Donegal division, which shows already where Donegal will come in the pecking order.

Moreover, under the current proposals, Donegal is being left with bases in Buncrana, Letterkenny and Ballyshannon. If we take a line from Letterkenny to Ballyshannon, everything west of that line represents nearly two thirds of Donegal, which is roughly the size of Sligo and Leitrim put together. The cover in that area is not sufficient. The Border stretches for 100 km along Donegal. On the other side of the county, we have much more than coastline. Like everywhere else, we have serious drug problems. The level of policing proposed for west Donegal is in no way sufficient. The population of the area multiplies over the summer months. My district of Milford, which is roughly the size of County Fermanagh, is losing its superintendent. Given the vast size of the district, the proposal for cover there is completely insufficient.

I make a strong appeal to the Minister of State regarding the current proposals for County Donegal. We are being lumped in with the Sligo-Leitrim division. Donegal is joined to the rest of the Republic by a border of only 4 km in the south of the county. We are already seeing the name change from the Donegal-Sligo-Leitrim division to the Sligo-Leitrim-Donegal division. If the main base is to be in Sligo, Donegal is not going to get the representation and type of policing we need. There are serious drug problems everywhere but Donegal in particular is too close to the Border. It is too easy to bring in drugs by aircraft or boat. Recently, we had major drug finds in the Milford district.

I appeal to the Minister to take another look at Donegal as part of the review, especially west Donegal where the population explodes during the tourist season. West Donegal is a big part of the Wild Atlantic Way. In the past couple of days, we have had an issue in Sliabh Liag in west Donegal, which is currently being investigated. The proposals before us for cover in west Donegal are just not good enough. I am thankful the Wild Atlantic Way is becoming successful and tourist numbers are increasing year on year. We need a review of the proposals for Donegal.