On the last occasion I was dealing with Deputy Dillon's speech and I tried to deal with any points that were raised as I went along. The Deputy spoke about the riot in Mountjoy Jail and asked if I proposed to hold an inquiry. I do not propose to do any such thing. I think that riot was due to the action of a small gang of very troublesome people. They have been dealt with and I think that is sufficient. He also asked me about the case in Monaghan and whether any inquiry would be held about that I think it was Deputy Coogan suggested that a man should not be put in jeopardy twice. There was a question as to whether there should be a disciplinary inquiry as to the charges made in court against the Guards or whether there should be legal proceedings. Proceedings were taken against the two Guards; they were acquitted, and I do not propose to go any further. I think the case was dealt with all right. The question of the discipline of the Gárda has been raised. Several Deputies spoke about that. Generally speaking, I think the discipline of the Gárda is quite good. There may be a little slackening, due to the fact, as Deputy Coogan pointed out, that transport facilities are not quite as good as they were and inspections are not as frequent. But, generally speaking, I think the discipline is all that can be expected. A year very seldom goes by without some disciplinary action having to be taken against some Gárda, but in a big body like the Gárda that is only natural. I think they are in no way abnormal.
Deputy Dillon also spoke about recruitment to the prison service and suggested that there should be a sort of cadet system. If suitable candidates cannot be found amongst the staffs of the prisons for the post of governor the question of getting somebody suitable from outside could be taken up. I do not agree that warders do not sometimes make good governors. I met some of them when I happened to be in prison and they are quite good governors. There was one man in Cork who made a very good governor. On the other hand, it may be that the type of man you would want for a governor may not be in the prison service and in that case we will have to get outsiders. I would not, however, commit myself to any such system as suggested. As to recruitment to the Gárda, which was referred to by Dr. Brennan and others, I think I dealt with that satisfactorily.
Deputy O'Donnell spoke about the question of dealing with tinkers. Tinkers are a nuisance but they are not so numerous; there are about 5,000 of them. It is very hard to know what to do about them and I must say that I have no proposal to make. They give trouble in some areas, but I do not think they are a very big problem yet. The police have instructions to pay special attention to them. I must admit, however, that I have no proposals for dealing with them. Then the question of clinics for youthful offenders was referred to. I think there will be something done about that in connection with the Mental Hospitals Bill which was passed recently in the Dáil.
Deputy Coogan had quite a lot of suggestions to make about the reorganisation of the Gárda. I dealt with that question last night and I do not think I need go into it again. I am satisfied that the present system is as good as you can get. The question of a mechanised force was advocated several times, but I do not think it would fill the bill. The Deputy also spoke about discipline in the Guards with which I have dealt.
Deputy Coogan also dealt with the question of the detection of crime and asked what the figures were. He said that I did not mention that in my introductory statement. I have some figures here about it. Taking the year 1938, the latest year for which comparable figures for both Great Britain and Ireland are available, the percentage of detections over the whole State was 64 per cent. against 48 per cent. in England and Wales. The percentage over the Dublin metropolitan area was 43; that is very low, but it was 27 in the London metropolitan area; whether they are comparable I do not know. In 1944, the percentage of detections was 55 for the country as a whole and in the metropolitan area 32. The indicatable crime figure for 1944 was 53 per 10,000 of the population. These figures compared very favourably with Great Britain. I hope that I have given all the information that the Deputy required. The Deputy also dealt with police being engaged on other work than the prevention of crime. That has been dealt with already.
Deputy Dillon dealt with the question of having juries of seven, and I think Deputy Costello said it was the thin end of the wedge for doing away with the jury system. The principal reason for that system was, I think, that we were asked to have jurymen drawn from a smaller area in order to allow people from country places to get home. Then, in order to get juries, naturally there had to be fewer jurymen.
