Mr. Fred McBride:

During 2015 we invested approximately €750,000 in an on-call service outside the greater Dublin area and Cork, because in these two areas there is already a full team available 24/7. In the other areas of the country we have someone on-call, and I believe seven contact points cover the rest of the country. In terms of what we anticipate next year, we are still to receive the Minister's statement so I do not want to pre-empt anything, but we anticipate the on-call capacity will almost double, to pick up on Deputy Connolly's point, so we can provide not only advice and information to the Garda over the phone but a member of staff can physically attend an incident or situation and take custody of a child where necessary. This is what we plan to have in place from next year.