Vol. 331 No. 4
asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware of the need to provide a new Garda station in a new location at Douglas, Cork; if he is aware that land is available for that purpose; and if he will instruct his Department to purchase a site immediately and erect a new station.
270.
asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware of the need to provide a new Garda station at Douglas, Cork; the steps he is taking to provide same; if he is aware of the need for motorised transport at this station which covers a substantially increased population and which also embraces the industrial estate of Mahon.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 269 and 270 together.
A detailed examination is nearing completion of the way in which the Garda Síochána is at present deployed in Cork city and of ways in which deployment could be improved so as to provide a better police service to the community there. The examination is being carried out by the Garda themselves with assistance from the operations research unit of the Department of the Public Service. It is accepted that a new Garda station is needed to serve the Douglas area but the exact location of this station will have to be determined in the context of a general reorganisation of the force in the city and the surrounding areas.
As regards the question of the allocation of official transport to Douglas station, the position is that the Garda Síochána are provided with sufficient official transport to cater for their overall needs and the precise allocations to be made to individual areas from time to time are matters for the professional judgment of the Garda authorities. They report that the existing arrangement, whereby the patrol car based at Togher station serves the Douglas sub-district, makes the best use of available resources. In addition, the Douglas sub-district receives attention from the official transport based at the district and divisional headquarters at Union Quay, including the district detective unit cars and the traffic corps cars.
