Mr. Drew Harris:

The budget is the same as last year. What we have set out to do is, and what my responsibility as Accounting Officer is, is to bring our budget in on the line as opposed to spending a budget with the hope that there may be a Supplementary Estimate. I am not making that assumption. My expectation is that I will stay within budget. We want our overtime to be operationally focused. Too much of our overtime is spent in supporting functions that derive from procedures and could be subject to some review. We spend a lot of overtime supporting other functions that are not our central operational functions. I would rather have the money for operations in Coolock and operations countering serious and organised crime. I would feel far better about how I spend the €95 million budget if I could apply that to what I see as the pressing operational matters that impact on us and the quality of life of people in what are sometimes distressed communities.