I raise the importance of having our Garda stations across the country open and accessible to the public. I acknowledge the outstanding work the Minister is doing in relation to garda recruitment and retention. Increasing garda visibility is critically important but so is access to Garda stations across our communities. I represent Cork South-Central, as the Minister knows, and the only Garda station in that five-seat constituency that is open reliable hours is the district headquarters in Togher. I know he visited there recently. We have urban areas with Garda stations located in them, but they are not open in a reliable way to the public. I think the Minister will agree that members of the public want to be able to walk into a Garda station, meet a garda, raise an issue with them and discuss a local issue of concern with them. Suggesting that they should call 999 to contact An Garda Síochána is not acceptable and it is removing gardaí from front-line policing and dealing with the community face to face. I ask the Minister to redouble his efforts in consultation with the Garda Commissioner to ensure that our Garda stations are open better and more reliable hours for the public.

I thank Deputy McGrath for his question. Like every other Deputy in the House, the one demand he wants to see met is to see more gardaí in his constituency. I know everyone in this House wants to see the same. That is a good reflection on An Garda Síochána. The Deputy will know that the number of gardaí in Cork city increased significantly after the most recent attestation in Templemore. I am pleased to see positive reports on the presence of gardaí in Cork over the Christmas period. I will discuss with the Garda Commissioner the issues the Deputy raises in respect of Garda stations. Just as people like to see gardaí, they also want to know there are Garda stations there. Ultimately, if I have to choose between stations or gardaí on the street, I want to see gardaí on the street. There is no point having stations if the gardaí are in there. I will talk with the Commissioner about trying to make sure that other stations in the Deputy's constituency are open on a more full-time basis.