Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have made the point as best I can. I cannot put it any further. The report needs to be in the hands of the representative associations prior to publication and prior to their arriving at UL for the briefing. They need time to digest it before they get the briefing. It is only fair.

On the White Paper, I appreciate that the Minister of State said he would give me a costing as far as is possible, and that individual projects have not been costed. However, I impress on the Minister of State that for each project there will be a scoping or planning phase. On this roadshow, where people will have an opportunity to give their ideas and input on the White Paper, we need to have members of the representative associations and serving members involved in the planning phase for each specific project to fully appreciate the difficulties that might be encountered by those who will be implementing the project. That is the point I wished to make.

The Minister of State did not answer the question on officer vacancies. Has he considered commissioning from the ranks and direct-entry commissioning to bulk up the numbers? There is clearly a huge gap and the Minister of State has identified that it is not possible for the cadet class to fill it.