Mr. John O'Driscoll:

There were a number of approaches. First of all, we had the criteria which I set out to the regional assistant commissioners. It was not a question of asking them whether they agreed or not in terms of reopening stations. It was a question of stating to them or informing them that it was in the plan for Government that six stations would be reopened. I sought views from the regional assistant commissioners. I also met the analysts and Mr. Seán Murphy in relation to the Office of Public Works aspect of it and the availability of stations. The immediate and most confining aspect of deciding what stations might be reopened was the fact that a lot of the stations that had been closed were already sold and no longer available. This reduced the number of stations that were available quite considerably. When one comes to Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy's region, albeit that he was not there at the time, there were only four stations left that could be reopened. In other regions, there was also a small number of stations.