I am glad to see the Minister. He would not be here if he did not have positive news so I look forward to receiving it.
Nobody but the Minister and his officials knows how often I have been calling for the establishment of a Garda station in Castletroy. Since the last time I raised this matter on the Adjournment and wrote to the Minister the population has grown and now far exceeds that of any large county town. It is projected to grow to 25,000. Given the confines of time, I will simply list the reasons for establishing a Garda station there. There is the high population growth and the presence of 11,000 full-time students and staff at the University of Limerick. The additional sports arena brings a tremendous amount of extra traffic to and from the campus, particularly since the 50 metre pool was opened. There is the National Technological Park, the location of high tech industry which requires support in relation to security. There are a large number of employees and businesses are often burgled.
The new post-primary school in the area is now half way towards achieving its target of more than 900 students. There are currently 500 students on the campus. There are three primary schools in the area, including a new gaelscoil. It is virtually impossible to get into the schools in Castletroy because the existing population is sufficient to fill them. There is a new shopping centre whose anchor tenant is Superquinn and it is attracting large volumes of traffic. In addition, there are the financial institutions, banks and two credit unions. The amount of money passing through the area is phenomenal. There are also many hotels and an enormous amount of house building. The missing link is an efficient and properly operated Garda station.
As a local councillor and a member of the governing authority of the university, I am extremely concerned for the safety and security of both residents and students. On many occasions I have spoken about the number of attacks on students in the area, something we cannot treat as of little consequence. The Minister has received letters from the university president, Roger Downer, who has highlighted the problem of attacks on students within the campus, and from the chancellor, Miriam Hederman O'Brien.
In previous correspondence the point was made that the university can be serviced by gardaí in the city. Even if they were able to get to Castletroy, and they are already hard pressed, it is five miles from Henry Street to Castletroy and given the volume of traffic and the traffic gridlock there is no way a police car could get there on time. By the time the gardaí arrive, the perpetrators are long since gone.
Small instances of crime – there were two burglaries this week – are happening regularly in the area. Not all of them are reported. The people of the area, the workers, students, residents and commuters, can see no reason that there is no Garda station in Castletroy. It is not good enough to claim that the force in the city is such that it cannot be redeployed. Of course, it cannot be redeployed. I am seeking extra gardaí for the Limerick area to ensure that the city and its environs can be looked after, along with the growth area of Castletroy as a separate entity. That would relieve the pressure on gardaí in the city centre.
The deterrent effect of a Garda station in Castletroy would also relieve the pressure on gardaí. On New Year's Day, there was an armed bank robbery at the AIB. That would not have happened if there had been a Garda station nearby. The station would in itself act as a deterrent. Although this is a rapidly growing area, the local authority has told me it will make a site available to the Department to have the Garda station built in the centre of Castletroy. The authority cannot hold onto the site indefinitely because there is pressure on it to provide other services.
The authority has shown leadership by moving its area office to rented accommodation in the Castletroy shopping centre. It demonstrates that the area needs a facility for the consumer. It is better local government where the focus is on the consumer. The same is true with regard to the need for a Garda station.
The Government is in office for almost five years and I am sure the Minister is sick of the number of times I have raised this and of all the letters I have sent. It is a waste of his officials' time to have to reply to me on a regular basis. There is another element of this issue of which the Minister might not be aware. There is a burgeoning satellite town of Castletroy, Annacotty, which has a co-op store and is undergoing huge development. An extraordinary number of people are moving into the area. Furthermore, at the junction which will be the new centre of the Castletroy area, there will be the southern ring road, which means the traffic from Dublin will come off that road and through Castletroy. There will be even more through traffic. Even with the southern ring road, there will still be the same amount of traffic going through the area because of the huge housing densities and growth in the area.
This is a matter of extreme urgency. If there have to be divisional changes, which I believe is on the cards for the area, in relation to aligning the Garda divisions with the appropriate counties of Clare, Tipperary and Limerick, which makes sense, now is the time to give that commitment to Castletroy and announce a Garda station there. I ask the Minister for that because if it is not done in the lifetime of this Government, I will pursue it as a priority in the next Government with Fine Gael. Deputy Noonan, as Taoiseach, will deliver because everybody is in favour of such a practical proposal, particularly considering renewed attacks in Limerick and other areas. A Garda station is a deterrent. It is a major missing piece of the infrastuctural jigsaw of Castletroy. From the fact that the Minister is here, I know he is bringing good news.
