I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £61,130 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, 1958, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Justice, including certain other Services administered by that Office.
If the House does not object, I propose to follow the practice of previous years and deal now with the group of Estimates Nos. 29 to 37, for which I am responsible as Minister. These Estimates, which were all prepared before I took office, are for essential services. In general, they show little change from year to year. The net aggregate amount of the nine Estimates is £5,371,540, a decrease of £111,110 as compared with the total for 1956-57.
The first Estimate, No. 29, is for a total of £91,700 for the Office of the Minister for Justice. It shows a decrease of £3,830 as compared with last year. The provision is mainly to meet the charge for salaries and pay of staffs employed in the Minister's Office and Accounts Branch, the Office of the Film Censor, the Censorship of Publications Board and the Adoption Board. There is no material alteration in the existing staffs as compared with the year 1956-57, but it is hoped to make sufficient retrenchment during the current year to keep the expenditure within the limit of the sum which has been included in the Estimate.
In previous years, reference was made to the administration of the Adoption Act, 1952. This Act continues to work smoothly. During the year 1956, the number of Adoption Orders made was 565 as compared with 787 in 1955. Of these Orders, 263 were in respect of Dublin City, 71 in Cork City and the remainer, 231, in the rest of the country. At the end of 1956 there were 14 registered adoption societies. These societies place 66 per cent. of the children in respect of whom Orders were made.
The next Estimate, No. 30, is for £4,666,080 for the Garda Síochána. It shows a decrease of £87,860 as compared with the Estimate for 1956-57. This decrease, which is shown mainly in the provision made for pay, allowances and clothing and equipment, is entirely due to the fall in the strength of the force. The saving so made is, however, offset by an increase of £89,000 in the provision for pensions and gratuities. The cost of pensions and gratuities will be an increasing charge for several years to come. Members of the force are entitled to retire voluntarily on pension when they have 30 years' service and are 50 years of age. The force is now 35 years in existence; consequently a very large proportion of the members have reached pensionable age. On 1st April, 1957, it was estimated that 2,900 members, about 45 per cent. of the force, were entitled to retire on pension, should they wish to do so.
The actual strength of the force on 1st April, 1957, was 6,592 for all ranks. This represents a reduction of 918 over the past nine years. For the year 1957-58, provision has been made for an intake of only 150 recruits, although the wastage over the year is expected to be at least 375. Should the wastage reach this latter figure, the strength of the force on 31st March, 1958, is unlikely to exceed 6,370 which will represent a reduction in strength of 1,140 over ten years.
With a view to offsetting any lessening of police supervision which might result from the reduction in strength, steps have been taken to increase the mobility of the force. To this end, motor cars have been supplied to 71 Garda districts.
The Prisons Estimate No. 31 at £174,940 shows a decrease of £10,800 as compared with the year 1956-57. During the period from 1945 to 1956, the number of persons in custody has steadily decreased. In 1945, the daily average number in custody was 796; in 1956, it was 396. In consequence of this fall in the number of persons committed to prison, it was decided to close Cork and Sligo Prisons. This was done in 1956 and there are now only three prisons in use in the country—Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, and those at Limerick and Portlaoise. The closing of the prisons at Cork and Sligo, coupled with a reduction in the cost of victualling and the maintenance of buildings, is responsible for the saving which has been effected. The fall in the number of female prisoners is remarkable. In 1945, the daily average number in custody was 96; in 1956, it was only 30.
In December, 1956, the Borstal Institution (St. Patricks) was transferred from Clonmel to Dublin. This transfer was necessitated by the fact that the average number of youths sentenced to Borstal detention had not exceeded sixteen over the previous five years and in one year had fallen as low as nine. With such a small number in custody, it became impossible to run the institution at Clonmel and provide the industrial and other instruction necessary to improve the inmates and to assist in their rehabilitation. As the Borstal system could no longer be administered at Clonmel, it was decided to transfer the institution to Dublin and portion of the female prison at Mountjoy has been segregated and is being adapted for use as a Borstal institution. The work of adaptation is being carried out by the inmates and is almost complete.
The location of the institution enables juvenile prisoners in Mountjoy Prison to be transferred to the institution where they serve their prison sentences. This serves a double purpose: it provides sufficient inmates to run the institution and removes the juvenile prisoners from a prison atmosphere and thus enables them, no matter how short their periods of imprisonment may be, to benefit from the training which is afforded in the institution.
Estimate No. 32 for the District Court at £90,790 shows a small decrease of £1,150, as compared with the year 1956-57. The decrease is mainly due to a reduction in the number of provincial district court clerks. The Circuit Court Estimate No. 33 is £10,230 less than last year. This comparatively large reduction is due to retrenchment of staff and an estimated increase in the amount of Appropriations-in-Aid. The Supreme Court and High Court Vote, No. 34, shows a very small increase of £840 which is caused by increases of pay under the Civil Service conciliation and arbitration scheme to court clerks.
I do not think there is need for me to say much about Estimates No. 35 to 37 for the Land Registry and Registry of Deeds, the Public Record Office and the Office of Charitable Donations and Bequests. The Estimates for the Land Registry and Registry of Deeds and for the Public Record Office show small increases which are due to increases of pay granted during the year. In the case of the Registry of Deeds, the fees payable were increased during the year, with the result that the receipts to be paid to the Exchequer are estimated at £39,000 as compared with £25,000 in 1956-57, an increase of £14,000.
It has been the practice for the Minister for Justice, when introducing his Estimates, to give a brief review of the crime situation. I regret to have to tell the House that the decrease in the number of indictable offences reported to the Garda Síochána which occurred in the years 1954 and 1955 was not continued into the year 1956. The preliminary crime returns for that year show that such offences reported to the Garda increased from 11,531 to 13,051 an increase of 1,520. The increase was mainly in the Dublin Metropolitan Division where the figure for 1955 was 6,333. For 1956 it was 7,353 an increase of 1,020. The main increase in indictable offences was in respect of offences against property without violence (chiefly larcenies). The number of such offences in 1955 was 8,555, in 1956 it was 9,604 an increase of 1,049.
I also regret to have to tell the House that there was a fairly substantial increase in juvenile crime during the year 1956. The number of persons under 18 years of age known to have committed indictable offences was 3,092, an increase of 446 as compared with 1955. The number charged in court was 2,478 being 340 more than in 1955. It will be noted that 614 juveniles who committed offences were not charged in court. They were mainly children under 14 years of age who were cautioned by district officers of the Garda instead of being brought before a court.
There was a reduction of 4,655 in the number of prosecutions for summary offences as compared with the year 1955. The number of such prosecutions in 1956 was 94,698 as compared with 99,353 in 1955 and 104,188 in 1938. It will be observed that the number of prosecutions has fallen by over 9,000 below the pre-war figure. Road traffic offences accounted for 50,063 of the prosecutions; offences under the Intoxicating Liquor Acts at 16,895 being the next highest, followed by 4,172 for unlicensed dogs and 3,909 prosecutions under the School Attendance Acts. The fall in the number of prosecutions for summary offences is chiefly due to the fact that there are now fewer prosecutions for trivial offences of a technical nature.