Willie O'Dea
Question:71 Mr. O'Dea asked the Minister for Justice the plans, if any, she has for every Garda station to be supplied with a patrol car in order to improve Garda mobility; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12911/96]
Written Answers. - Garda Patrol Cars.
There are over 1,500 vehicles in the Garda fleet and their allocation and utilisation are a matter for the Garda authorities. They have informed me that normally the Garda fleet is deployed on a divisional basis. Transport resources within the division are allocated by the divisional officers according to criteria such as population, crime levels and the number of Garda personnel in a particular area.
The policing arrangements for each district are the responsibility of the relevant district officers and where a Garda station does not have transport permanently allocated to it, vehicles are provided, as the need arises, from within the district/divisional transport allocation. It would be neither effective operationally nor cost efficient to allocate a vehicle to every station in the country on a permanent basis.