Vol. 469 No. 1
503 Mr. B. Smith asked the Minister for Justice the proposals, if any, she has to allocate additional gardaí to Arva, County Cavan; if she has considered the concerns of the local residents as outlined in correspondence to her dated 10 July 1996 regarding the need to have an extra Garda presence in that general area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16620/96]
The Garda authorities are responsible for the detailed allocation of Garda personnel and resources to individual areas. On receipt of the correspondence referred to by the Deputy, I requested a detailed report from them on the policing arrangements for Arva.
They have informed me that the present strength of Arva Garda station is one sergeant and one garda. They patrol the area at intervals between 10 a.m. and 2 a.m. These patrols are augmented by mobile patrols from the district headquarters at Cavan which regularly patrol the area on a 24 hour basis. The station at Arva is open for sufficient time to allow normal administrative business to be done. When it is closed there is a direct communications link from it to Cavan which can be used by the public.
The Garda authorities are satisfied that the present deployment of personnel and resources in the area is adequate to meet the policing requirements of the area. There would be no policing advantage in opening Arva station for longer hours — in fact, to do so would be more likely to reduce the effective level of policing in the area as a whole.
