I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £18,264 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1944, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Gárda Síochána (No. 7 of 1925, No. 10 of 1926, No. 5 of 1937, and No. 19 of 1941); and for certain Expenses of the Local Security Force including Grants-in-Aid (No. 28 of 1939).
The Supplementary Estimate is for the sum of £18,264. The gross additional sum required is £36,084, but bigger receipts from Appropriations-in-Aid and savings on other sub-heads take £17,820 off that sum.
Short explanations of the various items will be found on the back of the Estimate. It will be seen that under sub-head A (Salaries, Wages and Pay) the increase in the emergency bonus calls for an extra sum of over £10,000. A saving of over £6,000 on other items of this sub-head brings the required amount down to £4,000. Increases in the prices of clothing, equipment, furniture, bedding, etc., account for the additional sums required under sub-heads E and F. Subsistence Allowance (sub-head C) is responsible for the additional sum of £6,000 due mainly, as indicated, to claims arising from crime investigations and work on last year's Register of Population.
Under sub-head H (Transport and Carriage) there is an additional provision of £10,390. Most of this sum is required for the equipment of police cars with gas-producer units. It is proposed to fit some 80 cars in this way, at an average cost of about £100 per car. At the time when the Supplementary Estimate was prepared, it was hoped that this work would be completed before the end of the present financial year and, therefore, the entire sum necessary was included in this Estimate, but it seems unlikely now that the work will be completed before the end of March and some of the cost will, therefore, probably be thrown into the next financial year.
An additional sum of £3,357 is necessary for Incidental Expenses (sub-head N). This is made up of two items as shown on the back of the Estimate, and I may perhaps explain that the item of £1,817 for ammunition and miscellaneous equipment is not in respect of recent purchases but is merely the settlement of a long delayed account between the Gárdaí and the Defence Forces. The equipment was handed over by the Defence Forces to the Gárdaí three or four years ago.
The increase under sub-head O is due to the fact that we have been able to do more than we anticipated in the way of providing uniform for the L.S.F., though still less than we would like to do. We have supplied about 30,000 uniforms and about the same number of caps, and hope to supply some thousands more and about 5,000 ground sheets before the end of the financial year. I may say, also, although it is not strictly within the scope of this Estimate, that after the end of the present financial year we hope to supply 10,000 overcoats and 1,000 serge uniforms, and to improve the position as regards the supply of boots. Under sub-head R (Appropriations-in-Aid) there is an increase of £4,830, mainly due to the high prices now fetched by the sale of old uniforms and stores.
