Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Doherty queried the additional spending, an increase of 400% on the acquisition of sites. One cannot decide not to buy a property because it was not in the original Estimate. One does not know at the start of the year what will come on the market, and one buys sites that are deemed to be of strategic importance when the opportunity arises. We have made the following acquisitions: Enterprise House, Benamore Business Park, Roscrea, Caltra carpark in Sligo, Bailieborough new Garda station, a house adjoining our property in Clontuskert, County Roscommon, and property for Garda stations in Talavera, County Tipperary and Dunlavin County Wicklow. Sometimes one buys a property when it comes on the market, one has to move rather than sit on one's hands and end up regretting it for the rest of one's life.

In respect of the President's household, the overspend was on staff replacements when people retire.