I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £343,983 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1925, for expenses of Dublin Metropolitan Police.
That Vote represents an increase of £16,446 on last year's estimate. Savings amounting to £46,067 are effected under sub-head (B) (which deals with the pay of the Force), the saving there being £37,570; and sub-head (C) (clothing and equipment), on which there is a saving of £8,497. Those two substantial savings are more than offset by excesses under sub-head (A) (salaries, etc.), £1,052; sub-head (K) (pensions), £3,411, and sub-head (KK) (compensation under Article X. of the Treaty), £58,292. Under sub-head (A) (salaries, wages, and allowances), £15,237, Deputies will notice that an increase of £1,052 is caused by the appointment of a secretary in the Chief Commissioner's Office, an additional copying typist, and the reinstatement of a second-class clerk in the Dublin Metropolitan Police Courts. This second-class clerk resigned his position in the Courts after the signing of the Treaty, but before the approval, by the Dáil, of the Treaty, on the grounds that he had been harshly treated on account of his national sympathies. He obtained an appointment in the Dáil Ministry of Home Affairs, and on the commencement of the recent Irregular troubles he was dismissed on suspicion of being hostile to the Government. His case was investigated, and it was decided to reinstate him in the Dublin Metropolitan Police Courts, so that it is really a case of reinstatement. But the item did not appear on last year's Vote. The post of secretary in the Chief Commissioner's Office was one that always existed, but was absent from the Estimates for 1923-24.
Under this heading you have the salaries of the Police Magistrates. The Chief Magistrate at present has a basic salary of £1,200, plus bonus, the bonus being £263. He has, therefore, a total income of £1,463, and the two other Magistrates have basic salaries of £1,000, plus bonus of £263, giving them a total income of £1,263. When Part 3 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924, comes into operation there will be a District Court for the whole of the Saorstát, and it is probable that there will be three Justices of that District Court allocated to the Dublin Metropolitan area, at present served by the three existing Police Magistrates. The salary fixed by the Act for senior Justices appointed to the D.M.P. area is £1,200, inclusive. That is, in effect, a salary less than the salary of the present Chief Magistrate by £263. The salary fixed by the Act for the other two Justices to be assigned to the Metropolitan Police area is £1,100 inclusive, being £163 less than the salary of the present Police Magistrates. The salaries of Justices of the District Court are to be borne out of Voted monies until 31st March, 1927, and after that date will be charged on the Central Fund.