Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Sherlock always asks his questions plainly and I will try to answer as plainly as I can. I do not consider it acceptable. If I thought it were acceptable I would not be negotiating for an increase. I would not have called in the institutions and said that I want an increased contribution from them.

The initiative whereby the Garda Síochána, subsequently with back-up from the Army, began to escort these cash transit operations commenced in 1978 as a result of a spectacular robbery in my adjoining constituency in west Limerick, at Barna Gap where a large amount of cash was seized. There was paramilitary involvement in that robbery and it was considered at the time that the State had an interest in not letting large consignments of cash fall into the hands of paramilitaries or other criminal elements. Obviously the paramilitary threat has receded somewhat but there is ample evidence that the people involved in cash transit robberies at present are highly organised criminal gangs who are looking for money to invest, largely in the drug trade.

I do not think it is acceptable that only 43% of our costs are being covered. I want that increased and I have engaged in extensive negotiations that are nearing completion.

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