I move:
That a sum not exceeding £20,897,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1990, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Justice, and of certain other services administered by that Office, and for payment of a grant and grant-in-aid.
I propose that all the votes for which I am responsible be taken together, but I shall endeavour to answer questions on any particular Vote.
The Total Estimate for all the votes for which I am responsible is £412,617,000, an increase of £38,240,000 or 10.21 per cent above the expenditure for these Votes in 1989. The Estimate is made up as follows:—
£ |
|
Vote 19 — Office of the Minister for Justice |
20,897,000 |
Vote 20 — Garda Síochána |
300,697,000 |
Vote 21 — Prisons |
67,928,000 |
Vote 22 — Courts |
13,955,000 |
Vote 23 — Land Registry and Registry of Deeds |
9,012,000 |
Vote 24 — Charitable Donations and Bequests |
128,000 |
Pay and allowances, etc., account for 83.5 per cent of the total Estimates and show an increase of 9.3 per cent compared with 1989.
As I have already announced, following publication of the Department of Justice Estimates last year, substantial additional resources are being committed to the Garda Síochána this year as part of a major crime fighting package. The public want the reassurance of a visible Garda presence on our roads and streets and my crime fighting package is intended to ensure that the public get that reassurance.
The allocation for the Garda Vote for this year shows an increase of 10 per cent on the allocation last year and allows for the following measures: the appointment of 250 civilian clerical staff to release gardaí from office work to perform outdoor crime prevention and detection duties; 200 additional promotions in the Garda Síochána to posts as sergeant, inspector, superintendent and chief superintendent level; an estimated 250 gardaí in the ranks of garda, sergeant and inspector who would be due to retire on reaching age 57 before the end of 1991 are being enabled to serve until age 60; and the pace of recruitment of 1,000 trainee gardaí is being accelerated. 348 trainees will be taken on during 1990, which is 50 more than originally planned. Some 260 young men and women will become fully attested members of the Force this year. The first group of 82 were sworn in on 2 June and the majority of them have now taken up duty in the Dublin city centre area.
Above and beyond the increase in Garda resources in 1990 which I have already mentioned, there is a number of further significant areas where additional resources are being made available.
Additional funding is being provided for Garda overtime. The allocation for 1990 is £10.5 million. This represents an increase of £2.85 million on the provision for 1989. Additional funding is also being provided for the purchase of Garda vehicles — an extra £250,000 and technical police equipment — an extra £250,000. An increase of £500,000 is being made in the provision for Garda uniforms in 1990.
Funding is being provided in 1990 to enable development of the Garda communications network to take place and thus to ensure that the Garda Síochána continue to be provided with the most modern communications technology. The Garda network has been operating very successfully for some time in the 18 Garda divisions outside the Dublin Metropolitan Area and the DMA system which incorporates a sophisticated computerised command and control system, which deals with "999" calls, came into operation in 1989.
Additional funding has been provided for capital expenditure on Garda computerisation. The provision in 1990 is £395,000 that is almost double what it was last year. Developments planned for 1990 include increasing the capacity of the Garda computer, linking additional Garda stations to this computer and developing new computer systems.
All the measures I have outlined above are intended to increase the number of gardaí on the beat and to strengthen Garda resources in the fight against crime. The increased allocations indicate my determination and the Government's determination that the Garda are provided with the resources, in terms of manpower and equipment, to fight crime and the criminal elements in our society. As I have said time and again since becoming Minister for Justice, I intend to see to it that the number of gardaí available on the beat on our streets is maximised so as to provide the greatest possible protection for the citizens going about his or her lawful business, be it in the home, at work or on the street.
Turning to crime, I am glad to be able to say that following a slight increase in the level of recorded indictable crime in 1988, the provisional figures for 1989 indicate a decrease over the 1988 level. The Garda authorities are continually involved in an ongoing process of assessing and adapting their strategies as the need arises to meet changing crime patterns. In the last number of years there has been a particular emphasis on dealing with crimes of violence. The Garda authorities have informed me that their policies have met with some success and the provisional figures for 1989 show a substantial decrease in the level of armed crimes recorded throughout the whole country and particularly in the Dublin area.
The recent events, where gardaí confronted armed raiders in different parts of the country, demonstrate the continuing determination of the Force to apprehend the evil perpetrators of these robberies. In their difficult mission in seeking to prevent the successful perpetration of armed crime, the Garda deserve the whole-hearted support of the entire community.
The continuing problem of attacks on tourists visiting our country is receiving a great deal of attention from the Garda. Measures being taken to tackle this problem include the deployment of additional Garda patrols, including gardaí on plain clothes duty in areas of high tourist interest. Arrangements have been made with various bodies such as the Car Rental Council of Ireland, port authorities at Dún Laoghaire, regional tourism managers and the Irish Hotel Federation for the printing and distribution of leaflets which offer to tourists practical advice on such matters as car security and the safety of personal belongings.
An important element in promoting police effectiveness is the Garda community policing scheme, which has proved to be a very successful way of putting the Garda in closer touch with the community they serve. The number of community gardaí in Dublin now stand at 109, including 7 supervisors. Essentially, what is involved in the community policing scheme, is the assignment of particular members on a full-time basis to patrol duties in specific areas. The garda involved in each area participating in the scheme works the hours of greatest public activity in his or her area. Through his or her work in this scheme, the garda becomes personally known to many individuals in the area. People who might otherwise hesitate to approach the authorities about their crime and vandalism worries are greatly convenienced and reassured by this scheme. The Garda Commissioner informs me that he is preparing a further expansion of the community policing scheme to take place shortly, now that the first batch of the new Garda trainees have become full members of the Force and taken up their assignments.
The neighbourhood watch programme was developed to allow people play their part in preserving their own communities free from crime, working in close co-operation with the Garda Síochána. The programme has achieved widespread success and there are now 831 schemes nationwide involving some 192,400 households. The Garda authorities consider that these schemes have had a deterrent effect on the criminal, have improved co-operation and communication between the public and the gardaí, have increased awareness of home security and have lessened anxiety among participants about crime.
A noteworthy development in recent months is the pharmacy watch scheme. This is a crime prevention programme on the lines of neighbourhood watch in which pharmacists and their staffs in an area agree to assist each other in co-operation with the Garda Síochána, to curb criminal attacks directed against chemists' shops for the purpose of getting drugs.
These are all encouraging signs that more and more we are all playing our part in tackling the crime problem and, if we continue to work together, there is a great deal that we can do to beat the burglar, the vandal and the thief.
The continued violent campaign of the Provisional IRA continues to pose a threat to us all both North and South. We know that, unfortunately, the Provisional IRA have available to them large quantities of sophisticated weapons and explosives. The Garda Síochána remain determined in their efforts to seek out and seize those weapons; in 1989, for example, 122 firearms, 24,712 rounds of ammunition and 1,824 pounds of explosives, including 60 pounds of semtex, were seized by the Force. The Garda have continued that good work this year and continue to make regular finds of arms, ammunition and explosives.
I now turn to the Prisons Vote. The Estimate here allows for considerable developments in this area with estimated expenditure increasing from roughly £59 million in 1989 to £68 million in 1990. Among the principal developments provided for are the bringing into full operation of the new place of detention at Wheatfield, Clondalkin. By the end of 1989, the first half of Wheatfield, comprising of 160 places, had been occupied and there are now 240 offenders detained there. By the end of this year, the full complement of 320 offenders will be accommodated. This represents considerable progress for Wheatfield is the first purpose built institution of its kind to be provided since the foundation of the State.
Funds have also been provided for a new medical unit at Mountjoy Prison to cater for the special needs of about 60 offenders suffering from infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Other projects are the refurbishment of St. Patrick's institution and Mountjoy Women's Prison and I regard these as particularly desirable developments.
Unfortunately, the coming on stream of the 300 or so extra places involved in these projects over the next 18 months to two years will not enable me to close any institution — pressure on accommodation is such that every place will have to continue in operation and to be maintained and upgraded as necessary. A sum of £8 million was allocated for this purpose in 1990 — £5 million for expenditure on capital works and £3 million for the maintenance of existing accommodation. Work related to the upgrading of security and improvement of facilities generally is being undertaken in Mountjoy, Portlaoise, Limerick, Cork, Arbour Hill, Loughan House, Shelton Abbey, Fort Mitchel and Shanganagh Castle.
The total allocation in the Estimates for salaries, wages and allowances is £47.599 million. This represents a 14 per cent increase over the Estimate for 1989. This substantial increase reflects the cost of the additional staff required to operate the second phase of the occupation of Wheatfield, as well as additional costs arising in 1990 as a consequence of the public service pay agreement and the balance of a special pay award to prison service grades.
The 1990 Estimate also reflects the aim, even at times of pressure on accommodation generally, to maintain the quality of regimes in the institutions at the highest possible level. I would refer, for example, to the provisions made for education and work training programmes in the prisons and places of detention. An allocation of £315,000 is provided this year for education equipment and materials. I should stress that this is only part of the overall cost involved in the provision of education in the prisons — there are the equivalent of 123 full-time teachers assigned and the cost of their salaries is borne by the vocational education committees. In relation to work training programmes, an allocation of £725,000 is provided and this figure does not include the cost of the prison service staff involved. There were other issues in relation to the courts and so on that I wanted to touch on but the Deputies can read about them in the script I circulated. I will be pleased to answer any questions put in the limited time available to me at the end of the debate.