James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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416. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 33 of 30 March 2017, if the Garda stations closed in County Wexford are included in the six stations proposed for reopening under the pilot programme report which has since been received by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34420/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will appreciate that the Garda Commissioner is primarily responsible for the effective and efficient use of the resources available to An Garda Síochána and I, as Minister, have no role in the matter.

As the Deputy will be aware, some 139 Garda stations, including stations at Baldwinstown, Ballywilliam and Kiltealy in County Wexford, were closed under the Garda Síochána District and Station Rationalisation Programme 2012 -13 in order to streamline practices and to provide the most efficient policing service possible with the scarce resources available at the time. I am informed by the Garda authorities that no other stations in Wexford were closed under the Programme.

Garda stations that were closed under the Programme have, in the main, reverted to the ownership of the Office of Public Works and a number of them, including the above 3 stations have been sold. Accordingly, they are not available for inclusion in the pilot project.