I thank the Chairman for the invitation to appear before the committee again in my capacity as Accounting Officer and I look forward to discussing any aspect of the Vote with him and the members of the committee.
The structure of An Garda Síochána comprises a central headquarters, national support units and geographical operational units organised into six regions, 25 divisions, 109 districts and 703 subdistricts. The strength of the Garda service on 31 December 2009 was 14,548 sworn members, inclusive of all ranks. During 2009 and to date in 2010, 1,506 gardaí have graduated from the Garda College at Templemore while 776 people left the organisation in 2009 through retirement or otherwise. To date in 2010, 209 probationer gardaí have been attested and assigned to stations throughout the country. No further student gardaí are in the system, with just nine students needing to defer attestation for one reason or another. The strength of the force on 14 June 2010 stood at 14, 670, inclusive of all ranks. Given the length of time it takes to assemble a panel from which new recruits can be drawn, an advertisement was recently placed in the national media asking people to register their interest with www.publicjobs.ie and a recruitment process is planned for later this year.
Pursuant to section 19(4) of the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the Commissioner became the appropriate authority for civilian staff of An Garda Síochána in October 2006. A dedicated civilian HR directorate was simultaneously established to support the Commissioner in discharging this new statutory responsibility and to drive forward the implementation of the civilianisation programme. The number of full-time equivalent civilian staff employed in the Garda has increased from 1,166 on 31 December 2005 to 2,113 on 30 April 2010. This represents a net increase of 947. Of these additional staff, 846 were appointed subsequent to the Commissioner becoming the appropriate authority for civilian staff.
The 2010 budget for the Garda Vote amounts to €1.39 billion, 6% less than the 2009 budget of almost €1.48 billion. To ensure we can divert the maximum amount of resources to front-line policing, I have initiated a number of action plans to allocate resources to address this issue. My general budgetary policy is aimed at securing increased efficiencies in the deployment of Garda resources. The decision to keep the overtime allocation at €80 million will assist in this respect. However, I acknowledge that, in the current changed economic environment, An Garda Síochána must contribute to the management of the public finances in order to stay within the economic parameters set by the Government. To this end, I have put in place financial controls at all levels within the Garda, including monthly reporting and profiling of overtime expenditure with a view to obtaining efficiencies and value for money in the use of overtime. My emphasis continues to be on an intelligence-led, time-limited and focused policing approach.
There are ten staff — four sworn members and six support staff — in the Garda internal audit section, which is headed by a professional accountant with extensive experience of internal audit within the public sector. I can provide the committee with a list of all audits undertaken in 2009 and to date in 2010 if it so wishes. In accordance with the provisions of section 44 of the 2005 Act, a statutory audit committee was established in 2006. In accordance with good governance, I have formally agreed a detailed audit charter with the committee.
Turning to the issue of crime, there have been 22 murders to date in 2010, an increase of one on last year. Ten of these can be described as being linked to organised crime compared with 11 in the same time period last year. The main indicators for organised criminal activity include drugs and firearms offences and both are showing significant decreases this year. Areas for concern include crimes against property such as robberies and thefts. In terms of those crimes or behaviours that impact on the quality of life, we are seeing decreases in criminal damage, public order offences and assaults. In this context, the role of community gardaí is vital in listening and responding to the needs and concerns of local communities.
Before I refer briefly to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on Garda civilianisation, I reiterate my commitment to attaining a lower ratio of civilian staff to sworn members, which currently stands at 1:7. However, this must be carefully planned and implemented. Civilianisation in the Garda takes a number of forms and does not necessarily imply the direct replacement by civilians of gardaí in full-time administrative posts. Civilianisation can allow sworn members who would otherwise need to perform some administrative duties to focus exclusively on their existing operational duties. Civilianisation in An Garda Síochána has involved the recruitment of a sizeable number of civilian staff to perform new or expanded administrative, managerial and professional functions in areas such as HR, IT, telecommunications, analysis, student-probationer training, accommodation, scene-of-crime support and internal audit.
In seeking to estimate the amount of operational capacity freed up or saved by the civilianisation programme, it should be remembered that several hundred of the new civilian staff recruited since 2005 were assigned to vital functional areas, such as the Garda Information Services Centre, GISC, in Castlebar, the Garda Central Vetting Unit, GCVU, and the Fixed Charge Penalty Office, FCPO, both in Thurles and the Garda National Immigration Bureau, GNIB, in Dublin. While these appointments did not result in the redeployment of gardaí from full-time operational posts, they enabled the discharge by civilian staff of functions that would otherwise need to have been carried out by sworn members on either a full-time or part-time basis. In other words, rather than putting gardaí back on the street, we were ensuring that gardaí were not taken off the street to fill these important roles in critical work areas for us as an organisation. It should also be noted that the volume of administrative work in Garda stations and offices has risen significantly in the same period arising from new statutory and other corporate governance obligations and especially from the greatly increased caseload generated by the 2,000 additional gardaí recruited for front line policing.
The Garda organisation was seeking to fill some 240 civilian vacancies when the moratorium was introduced. This figure has since increased to approximately 270. In many areas, particularly the smaller Garda stations around the country, the work associated with these vacancies must be carried out by gardaí in the absence of sufficient civilian staff to provide the necessary cover. Substantial numbers of additional gardaí could be freed for operational duties if these gaps could be filled and it is my hope and intention that this will occur as part of the next major phase of civilianisation in An Garda Síochána.
The most recent Garda Síochána Inspectorate report makes a number of recommendations on the greater use of civilian support to free up more gardaí for front line policing. As the inspectorate notes in its report, I have publicly stated my commitment at a previous meeting in the Oireachtas to attaining a ratio of civilian staff to sworn members of approximately 1:3 or 1:4. I note the inspectorate agrees with my view that this must be carefully planned and implemented. To this end, some substantial groundwork has already been laid by the civilianisation review group, which I established and is chaired by the chief administrative officer, who is present today. It is currently finalising a number of reports for submission to me. The relevant recommendations of the review group will be examined in light of the inspectorate's recommendations.
In addition to the groundwork already laid by the civilianisation review group, I have established a number of internal working groups that have been charged with urgently examining the inspectorate's recommendations, including in the area of civilianisation, and developing workable proposes and timeframes for implementation.
Further civilianisation on the scale proposed by the inspectorate will be a complex task and will require the goodwill and commitment of the stakeholders who will be involved or otherwise affected. I believe, therefore, that as a necessary impetus to get this process under way and to sustain it, there must be a realistic prospect of the necessary additional resources becoming available, at least in the medium term. My team and I are available to take whatever questions members desire to raise.
