I understand the Deputy is interested in staffing figures for 1994 and the numbers currently serving in my Department. The number of civil servants of whole-time equivalent currently serving in my Department and associated agencies is approximately 3,500. This figure excludes staff from the Courts Service, the Prison Service and members of the Garda Síochána. The number of staff recorded as serving in what was the then Department of Justice in 1994 was approximately 1,500.
The increase in staffing can be broadly attributed to a significant number of organisational changes in the intervening period, for example, the incorporation of the then Department of Equality and Law Reform and the establishment of a number of independent agencies such as those in the broad equality and asylum and immigration areas of the Department.