Mr. Ciaran O'Connor:

The contractor and people who were developing the Harcourt Square building are going to flatten it at the beginning of January. The reason is that the building has many problems. It dates from the 1960s, its layout is not suitable for anyone in modern-day terms and, from our point of view, it would have required such a deep retrofit that it would have cost as much as the new building. The new building on Military Road is an A2-standard building, whereas the Harcourt Square building is a level E. In energy cost and carbon footprint tax terms, it would be a noose around our necks to have it. In addition, Harcourt Square does not have specialist facilities. For instance, the Military Road premises has very specific things in the double basement that are particular to the execution of high-security work - I cannot say more than that - and that were not available to gardaí in Harcourt Square.