The coalition is on.

There are some people who believe that a woman should be forced to continue pregnancy in any set of circumstances, even when doing so will have a devastating impact on her health, or might even claim her life, or if there is no chance of the child surviving and all the heart-breaking trauma that comes with that unbearable situation. On the face of it, their message might sound somewhat sympathetic to somebody who might be a victim of rape but beyond the soft words there is no substantive response other than to say that she made her bed so lie on it, that the woman should continue come what may. It is an astonishing lack of compassion and demonstrates an astonishing lack of trust in our women. I am glad that the Government and people across these benches have chosen to turn away from that lack of compassion and choose instead another route and way. Will the Taoiseach specifically address the false assertion in respect of very late abortions, which is being advanced by some in the "No" campaign?

The draft legislation which the Government has put forward is exactly that. I saw somebody pointing to it and claiming it was the law - it is not the law, it is the draft scheme of legislation that we intend to introduce if the referendum is carried on Saturday. That provides for the termination of pregnancies up to 12 weeks but after 12 weeks only where there is a medical indication, where a specialist obstetrician, somebody with ten years' training or more and a second doctor, agree that a termination is necessary in order to protect the health or life of the pregnant woman. Head 4 of the draft legislation refers specifically to viability to ensure that no pregnancy is terminated after the point of viability. The only situation where that could be the case is where, sadly, the pregnant woman is carrying a child who is not going to survive anyway, the case of fatal foetal abnormalities or, under head 5, which is an emergency provision. This is an absolute emergency provision whereby a doctor has to intervene immediately to end the pregnancy to immediately save the life of the woman. There is a double immediacy test under head 5. That is designed for those absolute emergency situations where there is an immediate risk to the life of the woman which requires an immediate termination and indeed something similar is already provided for in our existing 2013 legislation.

On behalf of the Rural Independent Group, I would like to be associated with the expressions of sympathy on the tragic deaths of Ana Kriégel and Jastine Valdez and to thank all the emergency people, including An Garda Síochána and everybody else. These are atrocious crimes, and so sad.

This morning I received a reply to a parliamentary question I submitted to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that details expenses incurred by the Department last year. The list of costs is extraordinary. In one year, 2017, the Department paid out €3.5 million in consultancy fees. These included almost €1.5 million to Deloitte, financial risk management, under €0.25 million to the Horizon Energy Group for strategic advice and a further €216,000 to KPMG, which we might all remember was adviser and auditor to Irish Nationwide among others. It also included a payment of €182,000 for more research and advisory services to the Gartner company and €100,000 to Accenture, for research and advice.

I would like to contrast those costs with the entire budget made available to local and rural communities, everywhere outside Dublin, to install and operate closed-circuit television, CCTV, crime prevention schemes throughout the State, including my county, Tipperary. The entire budget for that scheme is just €3 million.

That is not only a pathetic amount for a national scheme, we know it is €500,000 less than one Department paid to private consultants in just one year. It is shocking. I raise this because I received an email this morning - we all got it - from the rural development chairman of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA, Mr. Seamus Sherlock. He referenced the huge frustration existing in rural communities regarding the close circuit television, CCTV, scheme. It is not working. It is cumbersome and people cannot access it. He went on to say that figures released by the Department of Justice and Equality indicate that a mere 4% of the €3 million funding for CCTV has been spent. It cannot be drawn down because it is so cumbersome. Only €120,000 has been spent as the scheme reaches the halfway point.

The report on agricultural crime in Ireland was compiled by Dr. Kathleen Moore-Walsh and Ms Louise Walsh. We know from the report that farmers and rural dwellers have chronic experiences with vandalism, criminal damage, trespass and theft, as well as an extensive level of repeat victimisation. Despite this, the Government in the last five years has paid out over €606 million in free legal aid. One individual was before the courts on 102 occasions with free legal aid. People are left defenceless. Does the Taoiseach accept that the stark difference I have outlined to him between the budgets reveals the utter contempt that he and his Government continue to display towards rural Ireland? There was €3 million for a national crime prevention strategy for communities that are living in fear while €3.5 million went to private consultants. Many of them are friends of the Taoiseach. Will he commit to increasing the budget for CCTV and other rural schemes? Will he also try to make the schemes user friendly? They should not be so cumbersome that communities cannot access them. I refer to the text alert scheme also. It has to be funded by local communities to protect themselves. It should be funded by the Department of Justice and Equality.

I do not have details of the expenditure that Deputy Mattie McGrath mentioned. That is a matter for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. However, Government Departments regularly retain outside advice, whether that is legal advice, accountancy advice or people who come in and provide ICT projects for example. When a Department uses outside consultants it generally does so for two reasons. The expertise may not exist within the Department. Government Departments often do not have ICT, accounting, or legal expertise. Another reason it is done is because it is cheaper than hiring large numbers of new employees to do that work and taking on all the pension liabilities that come with that.

The CCTV scheme is a relatively new scheme. It is a good one. I know of examples around the country where it has worked well. There are issues and teething problems and there are ways that it could be improved. The Minister for Justice and Equality is keen to see that budget drawn down. He would like to see communities around the country avail of the installation of CCTV so that crime can be discouraged in the first place and detected where it does occur. I would not, however, like anyone to think that the Government's response to crime is solely related to putting in place CCTV systems.

It is about much more than that. The Deputy will acknowledge that a few years ago we reopened the Garda College in Templemore and resumed recruitment to the Garda. Increasing the number of gardaí on our streets and in our communities is one of the best ways to tackle crime. Since the Garda College reopened, 1,600 recruits have attested and been assigned to mainstream duties across the country. Garda numbers stood at 13,500 at the end of January 2018. That was an increase of 600 on 2016. We are also heading to reach our target of increasing the Garda workforce to 21,000 by 2021. That will comprise of 15,000 gardaí, 2,000 reserve members and 4,000 civilians. From 2013 to 2017, €44 million was also invested in the Garda fleet. That allowed 2,000 additional vehicles to come on stream. The Garda fleet now stands at 2,800 vehicles. That is an increase of 150 since January 2016.

I welcome Templemore being open of course. We need more gardaí and we need support for them. The figures quoted by the Taoiseach are just a fraction of what we need to tackle crime.

People are sick and tired of these private consultancy companies. The Taoiseach has admitted that his Department is unable to do this. We are talking about the amount of money spent by one Department. I am not expecting the Taoiseach to understand the frustration of the people, but he should. The Taoiseach set up his own specialist communications unit at a cost of €5 million. That shows how much he cares about the people. A parliamentary question revealed that €112,000 was spent last year by his Department on entertainment for the guests of the Taoiseach, €78,000 on photography and advertising and €99,000 on newspapers, magazines, tea and coffee. People see this largesse and they expect two-way dealing.

The Taoiseach is laughing. I would prefer if he listened, with respect. It is not funny for the victims of crime in this country, those who have nobody to help them and who have been abandoned. We have seen the failure to react to the cervical cancer issue. This is no laughing matter. It is a serious matter in rural Ireland. Fine Gael is a farce but of course, €606 million goes to its friends in the legal profession. The people have been abandoned. The attitude seems to be to let them eat cake. The Government will know, when it knocks on doors to look for votes, how the people feel. They are terrified in their homes.

Schemes such as the CCTV scheme and text alert should be paid for and should be easily accessible, not cumbersome for communities to implement. Communities are holding coffee mornings to pay for text alerts to warn the Garda when an issue arises. We want to support the Garda; I always support them. However, we cannot have this misery perpetrated on people, who are expected to just lick it up.

I can assure the Deputy that I have never been entertained by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, at least not in the form of libations or food and drink. It has entertained me in other ways on a number of occasions, but not in the way the Deputy thinks. Every Government Department has an entertainment budget. My own Department, for example, may provide refreshments or a lunch or dinner for a visiting-----

Some €100,000 was spent on magazines.

-----head of state or government. That is entirely appropriate. When a person is invited into one's house one very often offers refreshments, and I believe it would be poor of us, as a country, not to do so. It may extend to the kind of refreshments we put on at national commemoration events, such as the very successful one we had in Tipperary only a few months ago where a very nice spread was put on for constituents of the Deputy. Other examples include the recent reception we organised for 700 front-line workers who do such a good job.

The Tipperary event was organised by the Office of Public Works, OPW.

The OPW is a part of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, so the Deputy is quite correct. Many of his constituents benefitted from that particular expenditure.

Perhaps the biscuits should be replaced with fruit.

There are no biscuits in the Department of the Taoiseach anymore, but that is another story.

The Deputy does make a serious point about CCTV schemes. It is a good scheme, and I am aware that the Minister of Justice and Equality is very much behind it. I am also behind it, and we want to streamline the process to make sure that communities can draw down that money and put CCTV systems in place in order to deter crime in the first instance and can make it easier for the Garda to detect crime when it does occur.