Mr. Derek Smart:

From a CAST perspective, even if it was taken away, without having sufficient authorised officers, we are still going to be placed in the position where people will be left in our care for us to try and deal with. That is a huge concern. That will happen outside of CAST as well.

The other part CAST provides for me and my team in Limerick is that where people are given a letter and told they can follow up on it voluntarily and they walk out the door of the station, we go back and check in with them the following day to make sure they are okay. We do that follow-up. That is something I would like to see captured going forward to ensure there is something for those people who are not committed but are released from the station with a letter in their possession to say they are okay, and they just need to check in. Somebody needs to be watching those people and supporting them as best we can. CAST gives us the ability to do that.