In respect of Question No. 8, leaving aside the issue of co-ordination and given the current location, be it on the British mainland or on the east coast of Ireland, of the helicopter service, could I draw the Minister's attention to the time it takes for helicopters from these locations to reach our west coast? The Minister must now be in a position to accept the primary recommendation of the west coast search and rescue action committee, namely, the location of the helicopter service at Shannon and Finner. Could he give some indication of the Government's position on that, irrespective of interdepartmental committees and special groups? Would he agree——

I must ask for brevity, Deputy.

Would he agree that one must rely on co-ordination of these services?

I have already indicated my desire to improve the service on the west coast.

Does that involve the location?

Of course it involves location, but we must rely on the best possible advice available. As to deployment and operation of service in the most efficient way possible, we have sought the advice of people dealing in this area. It has been given to us and we hope to make a decision on the matter shortly.

Is the current stock of aircraft available to our Air Corps capable of travelling from any point in Ireland beyond 15 degrees west longitude and has it a capacity to carry upwards of 20 survivors or persons rescued?

These are some of the issues that have been addressed in the committee who have been established to look into these matters. We must await examination of the advice of that committee, which was received only in the last few days. It may be necessary in some instances to call in further support services and that is something which will be dealt with by the committee.

I take it from the Minister's replies that both he and his colleague, the Minister for Defence, will be reporting to the Government in the near future, but can he tell us at this stage what the costings involved would be in the relocation of two helicopters at Shannon? If this was decided on, would he or the Minister for Defence be in a position to go ahead with the relocation immediately?

This seems to be a separate question.