Mr. John McKeon:

Just to give an example, prior to that, community welfare officers travelled around. For example, they would be in Drumlish for a half a day, the following day they would be in Granard and the following day in Lanesborough or wherever. You had to know where the community officer would be at what time. If you needed them on Monday and they were not in your town until Friday, you would have to travel the length of the county to get to them. Having them based permanently in Longford town means that everybody knows where they were from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition, we still travel to those satellite centres and, by appointment, we meet people in any location, including in their home if they want. They can ring us and if they say they cannot get into Longford town but they need to see us, we will send somebody out to them.