Reduction in Garda station stationery
Blaney asked the Minister to withdraw an instruction to cut official stationery use by 50 per cent. Cooney said he was unaware of it; he also attributed some local staffing pressures to Gardaí being assigned to the Border.
While the Minister is awaiting the report of the consultants, could I ask him to withdraw the instruction sent out to all stations in recent weeks to reduce the use of official stationery by 50 per cent?
Comment on this
I am not aware of any such instruction. It might be useful information to Deputy Blaney to know that one of the reasons there are not as many gardaí as he would like in some areas is because of the necessity of having to send them along to the Border to deal with people for whom he assumed responsibility in the past.
Comment on this
That is not an answer to my question. Is he, as Minister for Justice, not aware of the fact that all stations were asked last week to reduce their use of official stationery by 50 per cent as an economy measure and would he tell us where the hell they are at that stage?