Vol. 514 No. 6
284 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the way in which savings of £3 million to £5 million will be achieved by recruiting 643 civilians to work in the Garda force between 2000 and 2010; and his views on whether there is a contradiction in view of the additional cost of employing civilians. [5137/00]
The Deputy is referring to a working document containing proposals to develop civilianisation in the Garda Síochána. This document is under consideration by the Garda SMI implementation steering group established by the Government in early 1998 to oversee the implementation of the report on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Garda Síochána.
The working document is also the subject of ongoing consultations between the relevant staff associations and unions and the bottom up review group which was also established by the Government to support the steering group.
I expect that following completion of these consultations and final consideration by the steering group of the working document that the civilianisation proposals will be submitted to the Government for its consideration.
The Deputy will appreciate that until the process that I have described is concluded, it would not be appropriate to enter into the detail of the proposals contained in the civilianisation working document.
