Mr. Martin Dunne:

As Ms Laverne McGuinness noted, this year we will be getting 47 new vehicles. They will replace the older vehicles in their entirety which will be removed from service and decommissioned. We receive a certificate of decommission for each vehicle we decommission. That is the way we operate and we will be decommissioning 47 vehicles, which will leave us with the oldest vehicles available probably being from 2007 upwards, which will keep us compliant with our own policies and procedures.

On the command and control centre, as Ms McGuinness has indicated, the centres on two sites will be running the service throughout the country and when we move across, one site will be live in Ballyshannon and the other in Tallaght.

In addition, in the past year we have replaced 35 chassis and cab units. As I have stated, the vehicles are constructed under a CEN regulation, a European regulation for the construction of vehicles; they must be built to a certain specification. All of our vehicles are built to that specification and certified as such. They are built in such a way that they have a roll-on, roll-off structure, in that the pod on the back is designed and developed in such a way that it will last approximately 15 years. Last year we replaced the chassis and cab in some of them by taking out completely the old chassis and cab and rolling in a new chassis and cab underneath. The units are then matched in order that any remedial work that must be done on the pod or the patient compartment is done automatically and developed at that stage. For example, it may need to be resprayed or the interior may require refurbishment. They are bolted up and are again recertified as being fit for purpose. Next year the handiest way to put it is that it will be a case of one in and one out, in that the 47 new vehicles will replace those older vehicles not fit for demount and remount. We will be leaving them to one side and dispose of them appropriately.