MORE GARDA stations will be identified for closure next year in addition to the 31 stations set to close this year, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said.
Mr Shatter said he had asked Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan “to look at further consolidation of stations” and expected him to undertake an assessment and produce a plan for 2013 towards the end of this year.
“In or about December of 2012, as we did in December 2011, based on the work he’s done and the assessment that he’s done, there’ll be further consolidation which means, to not use jargon, a further reduction in stations.”
He said while there were financial savings in closing stations, it would also be better to place gardaí who were “tied into administrative duties in stations that have no operational significance” on frontline policing duties.
Asked about former minister for justice and ex-attorney general Michael McDowell’s claim that the Government’s proposed referendum to abolish the Seanad would sweep away important constitutional safeguards, Mr Shatter sharply criticised Mr McDowell’s role “amongst others” in the promotion of “ill-advised fiscal and economic policies which led to this country going into receivership”.
He added: “I don’t think his announcements deserve on any issue in the political sphere to be taken with any great seriousness.”
Opposition to the controversial Legal Services Regulation Bill was being led by those who were anxious to ensure that self-regulation, rather than independent regulation, remained in place, Mr Shatter said. He said “both professions” (barristers and solicitors) had “lost a degree of public confidence” which had to be restored.
Former attorney general John Rogers this week argued in The Irish Times that the Bill would make the legal profession “subject to indirect supervision and control by the Minister for Justice”.
Mr Rogers also asked why the Government had adopted a policy “to vest such extraordinary controlling power in the Minister for Justice”.
Mr Shatter said some “wild and wonderful things” had been said about the Bill. “Apparently someone’s under the illusion that as Minister for Justice I want to control the legal profession ... I’ve no interest in controlling anyone,” he insisted.
“The row that has occurred about whether the legal services regulatory authority is or is not a truly independent body is more of a Trojan horse for disguising the fact that these professions would like to maintain self-regulation.”
However, constructive amendments would be considered, he said.
The Minister said he had no difficulty with the recent formation by judges of an association to represent their interests for the first time in the State’s history. “I think it’s a very good thing that the judiciary have amongst themselves a body that can engage properly with Government on issues of concern where that’s appropriate,” he said.
Mr Shatter said he had not expected to be running two departments – defence as well as justice and equality. There was an enormous amount of work involved, “about which I make no complaint at all”. Naturally he finds less time to deal personally with constituency issues in Dublin South, however.
Asked to assess the dynamic of Cabinet discussions, he said there was “open debate on issues” but dismissed the “media perspective” that there were lots of rows between Ministers.
“It isn’t a group of individuals who are having some personal wrangle with each other, it’s a group of people who’ve genuine, committed and serious views on issues that really matter, who discuss and debate those issues and I believe that we’re all working extremely well together.”
He said it was unfortunate that the referendum on Oireachtas inquiries was lost and said it would be discussed further at Cabinet level.
