This proposal has been in
the public arena for many years and nobody said
anything about it. As Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I secured the necessary funding to ensure the stations would be fitted out with audio video equipment and that was a significant achievement. I am disappointed the work has not been carried out in all these stations to date. I indicated that all stations would be fitted out by the end of this year but, unfortunately, for a number of reasons this has not proved to be possible. As I already stated, there were delays initially at the tender-evaluation stage of the process which held up the placing of the required order for the equipment. Moreover, delays have been, and continue to be, experienced at some locations when adapting the rooms to accommodate the equipment. That said, I expect that in excess of 100 units of audio video recording equipment will be installed by the end of this year. The number of rooms which have been fitted out to date is 150. Of these, 50 units have the recording equipment installed at 27 different locations.