Mr. Noel Dowling:

It was done up to 2010 or 2011, I am not quite sure in which year. A number of things came into play as a result. They were the court cases, the value for money report and, currently, a working group. Once the working group is completed there will have to be a tender process.

Our procurement offices in the Department, the Office of the Attorney General and so forth are well aware of the procedures that we follow. A fundamental difficulty with this matter is that we are not tendering for glasses, tables or microphones but for places where people can live and who are already in situ. They have linked into the local community, attend local schools and have established various social networks in the area. These issues must factor in a tender process. For example, 600 people live in Mosney. We could go for a tender process for the place and one may be able to get three centres to house 200 each but some distance away. Is it possible to close down a centre like Mosney and simply provide living accommodation in places that may be some distance away?