I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. The Bill is intended to meet the need for more station sergeants and inspectors in the Gárda Síochána. I am satisfied that we require at once 14 more station sergeants and 18 more inspectors.
Section 5 (2) of the Police Forces Amalgamation Act, 1925, prescribes that the Gárda Síochána shall consist of such officers and men as the Government shall from time to time determine not exceeding the total number of officers and men respectively specified in the Third Schedule to the Act. In that Schedule the maximum strength of the rank of station sergeant is 44 and of the rank of inspector 60. The actual strengths of the two ranks have already reached those figures. It becomes necessary, therefore, to lift the statutory ceiling.
All the existing 44 station sergeants are serving in the Dublin Metropolitan Division. Three each are allocated to 14 stations: Kevin Street, Newmarket, Kilmainham, College Street, Lad Lane, Store Street, Fitzgibbon Street, Bridewell, Mountjoy, Donnybrook, Rathmines, Irishtown, Dun Laoghaire and Blackrock. There is one at Whitehall station, which was established in 1935, and one is divisional clerk at Dublin Castle. I am satisfied that Whitehall should have three station sergeants and that four stations which have none should also have three each. These stations are Sundrive Road, only opened recently, Clontarf, Terenure and Dalkey.
As regards the case for more inspectors, five of the 18 are wanted for the Dublin Metropolitan Division, two for headquarters and depôt and 11 for country divisions.
The present E District of the Dublin Metropolitan Division extends about five miles, from Ringsend to Inchicore. Its present population is 142,000, representing an increase of 35,000 since 1936. It is proposed to divide the district into two districts—one to include Sundrive Road, Crumlin and Terenure sub-districts, and the other Donnybrook, Irishtown and Rathmines subdistricts. The establishment of the new district will, by itself, mean an increase of three inspectors.
The B and C Districts of the Dublin Metropolitan Division comprise the main central city and port areas and almost half the crime of the division is referable to them. In each of these districts an extra inspector is badly needed for crime investigation, control of street offences and attendance at court. That brings the total of new inspectors for Dublin to five.
Of the two inspectors to be allocated to headquarters and the depôt, one is required for the Technical Bureau (Fingerprints and Criminal Registry) and the other to assist in the training of recruits who are now being taken on half-yearly in batches of 100 approximately.
Outside Dublin, the Commissioner estimates that to meet urgent needs an immediate increase of 11 inspectors is necessary. Two are required for Cork City and County. The remaining nine are to be allocated to divisions where relief is most urgently needed. The totals, after these additions have been made, will be: inspectors, 78; station sergeants, 58. The maximum figures provided for in the Bill are somewhat higher, 90 and 70, respectively. This is in order to provide some margin for possible future requirements—to avoid having to enact another Bill in order to get a few additional men of these ranks should they be required.