Mr. Niall Ferns:

There was an amalgamation programme over several years. Stations such as Greystones and Wicklow and Courtown and Arklow were amalgamated. In many cases, however, we were able to hold on to the second building. That might not be the main building in many cases. Let us take the example of Carnsore and Rosslare. Those units were amalgamated, as well as Summercove and Oysterhaven and Toe Head and Glandore. We have had a significant number of such amalgamations. In many instances, however, rather than shutting down the small station - because its geographical area or border spread out - buildings were retained because we still have to cover the same amount of coastline.

Teams were amalgamated but for operational efficiency, it made much more sense to retain buildings. There are some buildings within the amalgamated units, therefore, into which we still want to invest some money. There is no work on a new building going on at Summercove. That work is under our maintenance programme and we got it across the line in 2018. We are spending some money on that project to bring it up to the standard we want. Units have been amalgamated but in several instances the smaller building, the smaller outstation, is still retained. That is how the amalgamation worked in that situation.