I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £10 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1946, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Gárda Síochána (No. 7 of 1925, No. 10 of 1926, No. 5 of 1937, No. 19 of 1941 and Nos. 1 and 17 of 1945); and for certain expenses of the Local Security Force, including Grants-in-Aid (No. 28 of 1939).
The amount originally voted for the service of the Gárda Síochána this year has not proved sufficient. No more money is actually required. A Supplementary Estimate is, however, necessary for two more or less technical reasons. Since the main Estimate was passed by the Dáil, an Act —the Gárda Síochána Act, 1945—was passed on 15th May, 1945, amending the Police Forces Amalgamation Act, 1925, by increasing the maximum number of inspectors and station sergeants with a view to the appointment of 18 additional inspectors and 14 additional station sergeants. The appointments have been made, and consequently some of the money voted by the Dáil has been spent on the remuneration of posts not included in the original Estimate. Although the Dáil has already approved of the additional appointments, I am advised that in the circumstances it is the proper course to submit a Supplementary Estimate. In the second place, it is necessary, in order to balance accounts, to take advantage of the fact that the receipts under the head of Appropriations-in-Aid have exceeded the original Estimate, and it is a rule that the Dáil should be asked to agree to that procedure.
I might mention that of the new inspectors three were assigned to the new Dublin district which has its headquarters in Sundrive Road, Kimmage. This district was formed by the division of E district which formerly extended from Ringsend to Inchicore. The B and C districts have been strengthened by the appointment of an additional inspector to each. Thirteen of the new inspectors have been allocated to country divisions, one to the Depot to look after recruits who are now coming in regularly and one to the Technical Bureau at Gárda - Headquarters.
Although, as I have said, the original amount voted was adequate, some of the sub-heads show a deficit and others a saving. The biggest savings are under sub-heads O and P which relate to the Local Security Force and they amount to £10,000 and £13,000 respectively. They result from the winding up of the force on the 30th September and the fact that its members were not actively employed in the year 1945, except in the local and presidential elections. In the ordinary way, the saving on some sub-heads and the deficits on others would have been adjusted by transferring the necessary amounts from sub-head to sub-head without recourse to the Dáil; but as it has been necessary to come to the Dáil in any case, the opportunity has been taken, in accordance with the practice in such cases, to set out in the Supplementary Estimate the main variations as between sub-heads.
I might perhaps amplify the note on sub-head G—Barrack Maintenance—by explaining that the public rooms in all Gárda barracks outside the Dublin Metropolitan area were, until this financial year, cleaned at the expense of the station party. The representative bodies have frequently urged that this work should be done at the public expense and this view has now been accepted. The expenses of this new service are estimated to amount to £9,600 in a full year.
