Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 157: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if, in view of the Garda Representative Association condemnation of him and their call upon him not to close any more garda station, he will review his statement whereby he stated garda station were not required to police the countryside; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20646/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I am at a loss to understand the basis for the Deputy's assertion that I stated that Garda stations are not required to police the countryside.

What is at issue is not whether we need Garda stations, because of course we do, but whether we need the 703 Garda stations we have had more or less since the beginning of the State, a time when transport, communications and technology were vastly inferior to what we have today. This is also a very high number by international standards. Scotland, for example, a directly comparable jurisdiction, has less than half that number of police stations.

The Garda Commissioner, in his Policing Plan for 2012, proposed the closure this year of 39 Garda stations. Many of these stations were in any event only open for limited periods and 8 of them were completely non-operational, some for many years. In the Policing Plan the Garda Commissioner comments that "these decisions were only made after careful analysis and research and I am confident that this action will result in a more efficient delivery of policing services."

The purpose of these changes is to deploy members of the Garda Síochána more efficiently and to maximise the number available for front line operational duty, and that is an objective that everyone should support.