Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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101. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to upgrade facilities to enable the better delivery of services by An Garda Síochána (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6338/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will appreciate, decisions in relation to the provision and allocation of Garda equipment and resources are a matter for the Garda Commissioner and I, as Minister, have no direct role in the matter.

I am, however, informed by the Garda authorities that there are 25 Garda Stations in the Cavan/Monaghan Division, 21 which have direct access to PULSE. The members attached to the non-networked stations have 24 hour access to the Garda Information Services Centre (GISC) which has a direct feed into the PULSE system.

The Deputy will be aware that the Commissioner launched the Garda Síochána Modernisation and Renewal Programme 2016-2021 in June 2016 and that this Programme is intended to professionalise, modernise and renew An Garda Síochána to ensure that the organisation can meet present and future challenges. As part of the Programme, the matter of enhancing rural access to the Garda network by connecting non-networked sites to the network is being examined. This includes plans to introduce mobile technology solutions to enable operational Gardaí to access core information systems, including PULSE, while on duty and away from Garda stations.