I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £65,040 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, 1959, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Justice, including certain other Services administered by that Office.
I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle and if it is agreeable to the House, to follow the practice of previous years and to deal with the Votes for which the Minister for Justice is responsible, namely Nos. 27 to 35, as a group so that there may be one general discussion, without, of course, prejudicing the right of any Deputy to raise any particular point on any particular Vote.
The entire group of Estimate, taken together, shows a net increase of some £114,000, which is almost exactly the amount of the increase in the Estimate for the Garda Siochána. The largest single item in this increase is the extra provision that has to be made for police pensions which are expected to cost some £60,000 more in the coming year. The upward trend in the expenditure for pensions is likely to continue for some years to come as there are now over 3,000 members of the Force who are, by reason of their service, entitled to retire on pension whenever they wish.
During the year 1957-58, 250 recruits were enrolled in the Garda Síochána but, notwithstanding this, the overall strength is still 100 or so less than it was on the 1st April, 1957 and over 1,000 less than it was ten years ago. The economies in man-power that have been achieved have necessitated an increased use of motor transport. All but 31 of the Garda districts have already been supplied with patrol cars and it is now proposed to provide a car of each of these districts at a cost of about £19,000. A similar number of mew cars are required to replace existing cars which have become unreliable and which it would be uneconomic to retain. The additional provision that has has to be made for the purchase of transport is in the order of £32,000 and this amount, together with the extra £60,000 that has to be provided for pensions, accounts for the greater part of the increase in the Estimate.
In the course of the year it is expected that there will be about 420 vacancies in the force, arising from the usual causes and, to fill these, it is proposed to recruit 400 Gardaí of whom 12 will be women, if the legislation that is in contemplation is enacted. All those who qualified at the examinations held in December, 1956, and December, 1957, will be called up in due course and there will be another examination for recruits in June.
Within the past few days I have received from the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána an interim report on crime during 1957. It shows that there has been an increase in the number of indictable officers of about 12 per cent. It is in the Dublin Metropolitan Distirct that the increase has taken place and there has been little or no change in the rest of the country. Most of the increase is attributable to the fact that in the course of the years the number of bicycles stolen exceeded the number stolen in the previous year by more than 1,000. The figures, which are provisional and subject to correction, put the number of indicate offences known to the police last year at a total of 14,322 for the whole country as compared with a total of 12,782 in the previous year and 11,531 in 1955. In the Dublin Metropolitan District alone the number of indictable offences known to the police have risen to 8,750 as compared with 7,120 such offences in 1956 and 6,333 inn 1955.
As usual about 95 per cent. of these crimes, that is to say, of the total volume of indicatable crime, consisted of the offences of house-breaking, stealing and other forms of dishonesty and it is in the field that there has been the most persistent and progressive deterioration in public morality. In this situation I suppose we may congratulate ourselves that there has been no significant change in juvenile crime, which has shown a slight decline. But the fact that in 1957 there were no fewer than 2,368 persons under 18 charged, and a further 665 cautioned in respect of indictable offences, shows how serious the situation is—the more so as it is likely that these figures do not tell the whole story.
In view of the crime wave, I would be glad to be able to tell the House that there had been an increase in the proportion of the indictable offences known to the police that have been cleared up. But this is not the case and, while the position outside Dublin is little changed at over 80 per cent., the percentage of detections in Dublin has dropped from about 40 per cent. to about 32 per cent. To put the matter in perspective, however, I should mention, first of all, that a detection rate of 32 per cent. for a large urban area is roughly the same as that obtaining in comparable conditions in other countries and, secondly, that the rate is affected to a very large extent by the detection rate for larceny, which cannot but be low from the nature of the crime, through larceny is, of all crimes, the one that is most frequently committed.
In the Dublin Metropolitan Division larcenies account for 81 per cent. of all indictable crimes. Moreover, the substantial increase in the number of larcenies of pedal bicycles was, to a large extent, responsible for the drop in the detection rate, as the stealing of bicycles is harder to clear up than other type of larceny. In the case of burglaries, housebreaking and kindred offences, the detection rate was as high as 69 per cent. and the whole picture is likely to look better when the final figures are available.
Meanwhile I should like to repeat a warning that has been given from time to time by some of my predecessors. It is that, no matter how numerous and efficient they may be, the police cannot be expected to prevent the commission of many crimes such as larcenies and, that at a time like the present, it would be well if members of the public took all possible steps themselves to protect their own property. Many burglaries of business premises could be prevented by the employment of night watchmen and there are many cases in which, in view of the value of the goods stored and the ease with which the stores can be broken into, the employment of a night watchman is a precaution that the owners can reasonably be expected to take, especially in view of the resignation on pension of so many excellent and experienced men from the Garda Síochána. Another type of crime which can be prevented by taking suitable precautions is the larceny of property from unattended vehicles or the stealing of overcoats from place of public resort.
I come now to the problem of public order and the security of the State which continues to the threatened by the irresponsible activities of unlawful organisations. As the House is aware these activities were condemned both by the Taoiseach and by his immediate predecessor, the leader of the Opposition but as they not showed no sign of abating but actually showed an increase it became necessary at the beginning of July to bring into force Part II of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act, 1940. Since then I have signed a number of internment warrants on the authority of which 131 persons are at present detained. It is my hope that the necessity for signing many more such warrants will not arise. Should, however, the public peace and safety be endangered by a continuance of these regrettable activities I shall have no hesitation in doing so.
Besides the internees, there are 18 persons serving prison sentences for offences against the State or cognate offences. I have no doubt that the action taken by the Government and internment of the persons responsible for this campaign has saved the country from much useless bloodshed. I am satisfied too, that the measures that have been taken by the Garda Síochána on the Border have offectively prevented their plans from coming to fruition and that the attempt that is being made to usurp the powers of Government and involve the country in civil strife is not going to succeed. In this regard, some hundreds of members of the Garda Síochána have had to be diverted from their ordinary duties to deal with the situation on the Border, and, in Dublin, the Special Branch has had to be strengthened at the expenses of other branches. In addition there had been increased expenditure on transport and equipment. But this is the least of the ways in which these people are damaging the interest of the country.
Turning from the Vote for the Garda Síochána there does not appear to be any significant change in the other Estimate all of which provide for expenditure on essential services and show little variation from year to year. In the case of the Vote for my own office, provision is made as usual for the staffing of a number of voluntary boards such as those that have been established under the Adoption and Censorship Acts. I should like to take this opportunity to pay a tribute to the public spirit which has led so many busy people to render so much unpaid service to the community and to tell the House that all these boards are working harmoniously and well. It is in Vote 35 that provision is made for the Charitable Donations and Bequests Office, but the charity commissioners, too, deserve a tribute for their work which is of the greatest possible value to the public though it is apt to pass unnoticed because it is of such a technical kind.
In the case of Vote 29 it will be observed that the decline in the prison population, which has occasioned some Press comment, is again reflected this year in the smaller number of prisoners for which provision is being made. What is not so widely known is that so few youth are being sentenced to Borstal detention—in fact, no more than three in 1957. This form of detention is intended for boys between 16 and 21 years of age whose criminal habits or tendencies, or association with persons of bad character, make it appear expedient that they should be subject to detention under suitable discipline and instruction for a period of two of three years.
The system in reformative rather than punitive and in practice an inmate is released on licence before his sentence expires if a suitable offer of employment is forthcoming. Apart from practical training, inmates receive instruction in elementary educational subjects and there are ample sports facilities, and I have no hesitation in saying that St. Patrick's is as efficiently and intelligently run as any institution of this kind.
In former years my predecessors have all too frequently had occasion to express regret for delays in the transaction of business in the Central Office of the Land Registry and sometimes in the Registry of Deeds. I am glad, therefore, to be able to say that in both cases, there have been much fewer complaints in recent times and, as I believe, much less ground for complaint. Not that the Business of the Land Registry can ever be quite up-to-date but there are no longer any abnormal arrears.
There is little more I can say at this stage but if there is any point on which the members of the House would like to have further information I shall do my best to supply it.
