Mr. Drew Harris:

I do accept that. Our estate that most Garda members work out is of a certain age and we are having to make do. At 570 stations, however, to refresh that within a 50-year period would, in effect, mean we would have to be opening new stations at a rate of between ten and 11 every year, and we are nowhere near that. Some of the stations we have are modern and their shelf life will be more than 50 years, but others will not last that long and we will have necessarily have an emergency in that regard, even with the estate as it is. The Deputy is right to highlight the population growth, but there is also the growth of the organisation. Every garda needs a workspace and a locker and our Garda staff need workspaces, and that just increases the space we need. Even to recruit Garda Reserve members, all of them need a locker and that is at least 1 sq. m.