Mr. Maurice Mullen:

I am not aware of what the Senator means by that. As a Department, I have stressed that we are looking at the whole picture. When it comes to Dublin, both Mr. Reynolds and I have explained the issue in respect of the operation there. That is part of where we are at this stage.

The Senator asked why there has been significant investment in the equipment now, which is a fair question. As matters stand we need that equipment and, therefore, we need to pursue the type of flexibility that communications from it will give us. The equipment is such that the vast bulk of it is not centre-specific and can be moved. However, even if we decided that the operation of some place was to change, it does not happen overnight. The idea that we would put this off or long finger it rather than service current needs makes no sense to us. We are continuing to pursue this and if there are to be changes in the future they must be considered, planned and put into a structured change programme. Everything I am telling the committee is in the context that no decisions have been taken at this stage. In respect of the very engagement about which Deputy McHugh asked and the question of whether we were looking at additional work at this stage, I can say that we are doing so because we are examining the maximum array of opportunities or ways in which we could approach this and following that, where we can move forward.

Mr. Reynolds picked up a very important point. We are still very stretched with regard to resources and we must take the best decisions and continue to operate as best we can with the available resources in the country. We are no different from any other public service body in that we are not in a position to put up our hand and ask to man the whole system the way we would all love to.