This is a vote for my own Department, the Department of Justice, formerly Home Affairs. The net estimate shows an increase of £7,738 over the estimate for last year. The principal increases are under sub-head A—Salaries, Wages and Allowances—£8,516, and sub-head AA, which is new, for the cost of Film Censorship, and which appears for the first time on the Estimate, £3,382. Sub-head E is in connection with expenses of winding up the affairs of the late Dáil Eireann Courts, and that shows a decrease of £4,500. Under sub-head A the increase is largely accounted for by reason of the transfer from the Vote of the Gárda Síochána of the expenses of the staff engaged on the keeping of the accounts and payments to that Force. Formerly the greater part of the accountancy work of the Gárda Síochána was done in the Depôt and the Vote for the Gárda Síochána bore that expense. Since then we simply improved and tightened the administration, so that the staff has been transferred to, and is in closer connection with the Ministry, and the expense of the staff is now borne on the Ministry's Vote. The staff consists of one clerk-in-charge of accounts, at a salary of £550 to £700 per annum; four junior executive officers, from £100 to £400 per annum; six lower clerical officers, at from £60 to £250; eight temporary clerks, from £2 15s. a week to £4, and one typist. This is a civilian staff, and the Gárda Síochána Vote is accounted for by the Ministry of Justice. It was considered that the accounting work should be done under the direct supervision of the Ministry, and accordingly the transfer was made. In fact, administratively, the executive head of the Department of Justice is the Accounting Officer for the Vote of the Gárda Síochána.
There is an item of £470 for the administration of the Aliens Restrictions Act which may require some explanation. It is made up as follows:—There is a sum of £370 for an Immigration Inspector (salary and allowances) and a provision of £100 for the payment of a deputy for the above officer for extra assistance during the Summer months, and for repayments to the Customs and Excise Authorities of any expenses incurred in administering the Aliens Restrictions Act at Moville. All aliens coming from abroad, that is from outside Saorstát Eireann or Great Britain or Northern Ireland, wishing to land in the Saorstát, must receive permission to do so from an Immigration Officer. On the Immigration Officer rests the full responsibility for seeing that no undesirable alien is permitted to land, and to that effect each alien landing has to be carefully examined. The routine for the landing and examination of aliens is as follows:—The Immigration Officer boards the arriving vessel before anyone has left it and is supplied with the passenger manifest. All passengers desiring to land—Irish, British, and aliens—are then examined by him. He has nothing to do as regards passengers listed as Irish and British, but to see that their nationality is genuine, and that they are not aliens in possession of forged passports. Aliens must be in possession of passports duly vised when necessary. A visa is not required in the case of many foreign countries. The Immigration Officer is empowered to refuse leave to land to any alien who
(a) is not in a position to support himself and his dependents.
(b) if coming to take up employment has not a permit from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce;
(c) if a lunatic, idiot or mentally deficient;
(d) has been certified for medical reasons to be unfit to land;
(e) has been sentenced in a foreign country for any crime within the meaning of the Extradition Acts 1870-1906;
(f) is the subject of a deportation or an expulsion order in force;
(g) has been prohibited from landing by the Minister for Home Affairs.
On the Immigration Officer rests the responsibility of deciding, in doubtful cases, whether a person is of Irish or British nationality, or is an alien. Exhaustive instructions have been issued on this point for the guidance of Immigration Officers.
There is an allowance of £50 for inspection under the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876, which represents the salary of the Vivisection Inspector.
The figure of £868 for messenger and Protective Force Services represents the proportion of the total cost of these services at Government Buildings, which is attributable to the Ministry of Home Affairs. There are certain services common to all Departments, and a simple apportionment appears on the Vote of each Ministry. The sum of £300 provided for overtime is to meet the cost of the extra duty performed by the Gárda Síochána Accounts Branch in the first week of each month, during which period the whole Force throughout the country is paid. These periodical payments involve a great pressure of work on that particular staff, and necessitates overtime by them. It was, therefore, necessary to insert a provision of £300 to that end.
It has been found necessary to provide a sum of £2,000 for contemplated additional staff. The constantly increasing scope of the duties of the Ministry have rendered very difficult the fixing of a definite establishment, and in view of the quantity of legislation recently passed, and still pending, which directly affects the scope of the Ministry's duty, it is considered advisable to make provision to this extent for extra staff. There are two posts for which provision was made last year, and which do not appear this year, the post of Adviser on Police Organisation and the post of Civil Commissioner at Pettigo. These disappear from this year's Estimate.
With regard to the Film Censorship (sub-head AA), I made in March last a rather detailed statement regarding the financial arrangements of the Film Censorship. Payment is made to the Irish Bonded Film Store, Limited, at the rate of 10s. per thousand feet of film shown, and this represents the only payment made by the Ministry to the firm in question. It is not anticipated that more than 65,000 feet or 70,000 feet of film will be shown per week, but it is, nevertheless, thought advisable, in view of the lack of practical experience, to make ample provision for the cost of this service. Accordingly, the sum of £2,652 under the heading, "cost of showing films," is set down, and this would include the reshowing of films. The sum of £300 "provision for additional staff," is intended to meet the expenses of any extra clerical assistance the Censor may require, and to pay for the services of a deputy should the Censor himself, for any reason, be unable to act or be absent.
