I move:
That a sum not exceeding £7,112,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1980, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Justice, and of certain other services administered by that Office, and of the Public Record Office, and of the Keeper of State Papers and for the purchase of historical documents, etc., and for payment of a grant-in-aid.
With the permission of the Cheann Comhairle, I propose that all the Votes for which I am responsible be taken together but I shall endeavour to answer any questions on any particular Vote.
The total Estimate for all the votes for which I am responsible is £144,128,000 made up as follows: Vote 22—Office of the Minister for Justice, £7,112,000; Vote 23—Garda Síochána, £110,554,000; Vote 24—Prisons, £188,255,000; Vote 25—Courts, £4,723,000; Vote 26— Land Registry and Registry of Deeds, £3,384,000; Vote 27—Charitable Donations and Bequests, £100,000. This total of £144,128,000 compares with a total Estimate for these six Votes of £101,910,000 in 1979.
In the limited time available to me I would like to take the opportunity to say a few words concerning the various areas for which I, as Minister for Justice, have responsibility.
The safeguarding of the security of the State and the fight against crime places a very heavy and ever-increasing burden on the Exchequer. I am sure, however, that Deputies will agree with me that this expenditure is essential. This year, for the first time, the overall provision in the Vote for the Garda Síochána has topped the £100 million mark.
It is my job as Minister for Justice to see that the force have sufficient resources of men and equipment to respond to the demands that society is making on it. As regards manpower, the House will already be aware of the substantial increases in Garda strength which have taken place since I took office as Minister for Justice. In July 1977 the strength of the Garda Síochána was 8,485 people. By 1 June this year the strength of the force had been increased to 9,607, or by approximately 13 per cent. In all, a total of 1,560 gardaí have been recruited since July 1977 but allowing for wastage, due to retirements and deaths, the net increase in strength is 1,122. Recruitment of additional gardaí is still continuing and another recruitment campaign is at present under way with a view to bringing the overall strength of the force to 10,000 by the end of this year.
To ensure that all the manpower provided for the force is utilised in the the most efficient way possible, studies are being conducted in provincial Garda districts and in the Dublin area, to see what combinations of patrol cars, cycles and foot patrols, with the assistance of modern radio communications, can provide the best service to the local communities. The Garda authorities accept that some experimentation is desirable in these matters and pilot schemes are planned for selected areas to see whether long-standing methods of providing Garda coverage can be improved upon. These pilot schemes will be conducted in full consultation with local communities and I am hopeful that they will produce very worthwhile results.
In the meantime, the Garda authorities, at my instance, are working on details of plans for new measures intended to provide stronger and more effective Garda coverage in Dublin and other major cities.
A number of Garda areas of work are already being aided by computer systems, that is, work related to the registration of firearms, stolen and suspect vehicles, crime reporting and recording, missing persons, and so on. Some of these systems are being developed and others are planned.
The Forensic Science Laboratory of my Department is only in its fifth year in existence but already it has established itself as an important aid to the Garda Síochána in their efforts to apprehend wrongdoers and obtain convictions in court. The staff have been substantially increased and, in addition, the very best and most up-to-date equipment has been provided for use in the laboratory. This is a concrete example of this Government's commitment to assist the Garda.
Work is also going ahead on the planning of a modern, national radio network for the force and I want to take this opportunity to thank a number of the foremost experts in the country who are acting as an advisory committee to oversee this work on my behalf. A consultant has been engaged to do detailed design work and it is hoped that the force will begin to experience the benefits of the new system in the coming year.
It is essential that the Garda radio maintenance and repair service be expanded and improved in preparation for the new radio network which I have referred to and negotiations on this matter will commence shortly with the Garda Associations concerned.
The crime situation continues to give cause for concern. As the recent debate during Private Member's Business on the topic of violence and vandalism ranged over the crime situation generally, I shall confine myself today to some brief remarks. The crime statistics for 1979 which I propose to give are provisional figures only. The final figures will appear in the Commissioner's Annual Crime Report for 1979 which will be published in a few months time.
The number of indictable offences for 1979 is provisionally 64,051 which represents an increase of 3.3 per cent on the 1978 figure. A total of 26,310 of these offences were detected in 1979; this is a 41 per cent detection rate, which is about the same as the rate for 1978. Statistics for 1980 obviously have to be treated with some caution but provisional figures in respect of the Dublin Metropolitan Area for the first four months of 1980 indicate an increase of 21.5 per cent over the corresponding period for last year. This worsening crime situation is of course very worrying.
In common with societies the world over, we have experienced a serious rise in crime in recent years. As in the case of other countries, we have experienced an upsurge in violent crimes and in organised crimes. Armed robberies, for example, which increased rapidly during the seventies have been of particular concern. There are varying opinions, even among experts, as to the causes of this development. Whatever the causes, the Government are resolute in their determination to take all reasonable steps to maintain standards of law and order.
Substantial Garda resources have to be allocated to combat the activities of subversive organisations and to safeguard the security of the State. A high level of Garda manpower is maintained in the Border areas to ensure protection of the public there and to prevent the use of those areas for the mounting of attacks in Northern Ireland. The measures that have been taken and that continue to be taken in allocating Garda and, indeed, Army personnel in substantial numbers to the Border areas involve a high cost.
I would like here to compliment the Garda Síochána for the work they are doing in this area. They have had some outstanding successes. During recent months they have seized large quantities of arms, ammunition and explosive materials. These seizures will have contributed to the saving of lives. I would also like to thank the Army for the continuing assistance they give to the Garda in the fight against terrorist crime.
Calls for the abolition of the Special Criminal Court are again being made by persons some of whom have consistently opposed the existence of the court. The House will be aware of the kneecapping in Donegal recently of a witness who gave evidence before the court. I am aware that other potential witnesses in Special Criminal Court cases have been subject to intimidation in recent times. I can give the House an assurance that the Special Criminal Court will remain in being for as long as the Government are satisfied that the need for it exists.
In August 1978, I received representations from the associations representing the ranks of the force up to and including chief superintendent to establish a committee of inquiry to examine and report on their pay. After some negotiation with the associations I was able to establish a committee of inquiry with broader terms of reference than those envisaged earlier by the associations. Copies of the report of this committee were laid before this House on 11 May 1979. I am sure Deputies are well aware of the various recommendations in the report.
The pay increases recommended in the report were substantial and were implemented from 1 March 1979, as recommended by the committee. Taking pay and rent allowance together the increases varied between 12 per cent for a recruit in training and 26 per cent for a garda with 15 years service. The increases for other ranks up to superintendent were also of the order of 26 per cent. The chief superintendents' increase was 21 per cent but these had already got a 5 per cent increase in 1977. The annual cost to the Exchequer is £14 million.
In addition to the increases in pay resulting from the recommendations of the Ryan Committee, the force have also benefited from the increases under the national understanding. Taking all the increases into account, the remuneration of a recruit garda has gone up by 35 per cent in the past 15 months and the remuneration of a garda with 15 years' service has gone up by 50 per cent. The increases for sergeants and higher ranks have also been of the order of 50 per cent.
As Deputies will be aware, the volume of court business continues to increase and the court structure generally has been under great pressure but, I am pleased to be able to tell the House, the district and circuit courts have coped well with the increased flow. This has been accomplished with the assistance of one temporary Circuit Court judge and two temporary district justices who were appointed in 1978 to help with the increased work-load.
Here I should like to say that the extremely serious arrears of business, especially criminal business, that existed in the Dublin Circuit Court in 1977 have been completely wiped out and, since this is the first opportunity I have had of doing so in this House, I want publicly to pay tribute—in which, I feel sure all Members of the House would wish to join—to the President of the Circuit Court and his colleagues who achieved this remarkable success.
The situation in the High Court is not so satisfactory, but I hasten to add this is not the fault of the court. Two additional High Court judges were, however, appointed in October 1979, following the enactment of the Courts Act, 1979, and arrangements are in hand for the provision later this year of two additional jury court rooms in the Four Courts, one of which will be for use by both the Circuit Court and the High Court, and the other by the High Court. I am hopeful that arrangements which the President of the High Court has made for the disposal of court business over the coming months will help to bring about a substantial and lasting reduction.
In the area of the provision of court resources, a serious problem is accommodation. Responsibility for the provision and maintenance of court accommodation, with certain exceptions in the Dublin area, is vested by law in local authorities. It is accepted that there are some venues where the court accommodation is less than satisfactory and I am at present having an inquiry carried out to establish the level of improvements required at the various court venues throughout the country.
The accommodation problem is most acute in Dublin where the steepest increase in court business has been experienced. Plans are now well advanced for the building of a new court office block on the site of the old Four Courts Hotel and when this is built and ready for occupation staff at present housed in the Four Courts proper will be transferred to it, thereby releasing accommodation suitable for adaptation as additional courtrooms which should ease the court accommodation problems of the High and Circuit Courts in Dublin for the foreseeable future.
The accommodation at the Children's Court in Dublin Castle has been the subject of criticism in recent times and I am glad to be able to inform the House that substantial improvements and redecoration have been carried out there by the Office of Public Works. However, the long-term solution is to move this court away from its existing premises and planning to this end is in train in consultation with the Office of Public Works.
Over £18 million has been estimated for expenditure on prisons in 1980. There are at present nine institutions operating under my Department as prisons and places of detention and the special school at Loughan House. The estimate for the Vote was based on an average daily population of 1,355. The total net estimate for the Vote exceeds the corresponding figure for 1979 by £4.964 million—an increase of 37 per cent. The main increases occur under subheads A, D and G.
The increase under subhead A, salaries, wages and allowances—£3,423 million or 38 per cent—is due to the fact that it is intended to increase the number of serving prison staff to 1,500 by the end of 1980. This means that 400 staff will be recruited in 1980 representing a net increase of about 350 or 30 per cent on staff numbers at the end of 1979. Taking into account the period required for recruitment and training of new recruits, the majority of them will not be on effective duty until well into the year. Even with additional staff, however, overtime will still be necessary especially to cover prisoners' evening recreation period. This overtime cannot be substantially reduced without changes in the rostering arrangements and discussions are continuing with the Prison Officers' Association on this topic.
The estimated cost of uniforms and other miscellaneous allowances, which are also accounted for under this subhead, has increased from £0.417 million in 1979 to £1.101 million in 1980. This is due partly to the proposed increase in the number of prison officers and partly to a reduction in the replacement period for some items of uniform.
Under subhead D, £3.8 million is provided for building and equipment. Of this £3 million is for "sites, new works, alterations and additions" and represents an increase of £1.2 million on last year's estimate. The balance of the subhead, £800,000, is attributed to maintenance and equipment and to the rental of storage accommodation—the corresponding figure for last year was £650,000.
Major capital building works are being carried out at Mountjoy, Arbour Hill Training Unit, Shelton Abbey and Loughan House. Initial site works have begun for the new high security prison at Portlaoise. The first phase of the development of the Wheatfield, County Dublin, site will commence in 1980.
For some years past successive Ministers for Justice have expressed their dissatisfaction with the custodial accommodation for women. I am determined that during my term of office tangible steps will be taken to build a new women's prison. I have already publicly announced that Wheatfield will be developed, starting in 1980, to provide the long awaited replacement for the women's prison.
On another part of the Wheatfield lands, work will also commence this year on the provision of a place of detention for 120 male juveniles between 16 and 21 years of age. This new accommodation for juveniles, together with a similar provision located in Cork city, will replace the present St. Patrick's Institution and enable St. Patrick's to be phased out of use as a place of detention for male juveniles.
The prison service training programme is being expanded and improvements are being made.
The question of legal aid—particularly legal aid in civil matters—has been the subject of considerable public interest and comment during the current year. Deputies will be aware that I laid the Government's scheme of civil legal aid and advice before the House in December 1979 and at that time I also set up the Legal Aid Board to administer the scheme. The Government's scheme goes well beyond the manifesto promise which was:
Legal aid will be extended to civil proceedings where this is necessary; as a first step it will be introduced in the area of family law.
The increasing cost of providing criminal legal aid has become a matter of concern to me and I am looking forward to receiving the committee's recommendations on this and other aspects of the scheme in its final report which I expect to receive in a matter of weeks.
I would like to mention now certain important legislative proposals that I confidently expect to bring before the House by the end of the year and, in some cases, before that.
The Committee on Court Practice and Procedure in their latest report to me recommended a substantial extension of the civil jurisdictions of the district and circuit courts and the conferring on those courts of new jurisdiction in family law matters. A Bill based on these recommendations is at an advanced stage of preparation.
I have already indicated in this House that I have legislation in relation to the law of rape under preparation. On 27 March 1980, I stated that I confidently expected to introduce the necessary Bill on this subject within the present year. Since then, consideration of the very complex issues involved has advanced considerably and as a result I expect to be shortly presenting my proposals to the Government. Although a considerable amount of drafting work has yet to be done, I now expect that I may be in a position to introduce the proposed Bill much earlier than the deadline I had already given.
Finally, I know that the Law Reform Commission have every hope of being able to present their final recommendations in regard to the tort of criminal conversation and certain other torts quite soon. On that basis I can confidently predict that by the end of this year I will be introducing a Bill to abolish the tort of criminal conversation and certain other torts, while at the same time indicating, by the presence or absence of other proposals in the Bill, what the Government's attitude is on the question whether a new form or forms of action should be recommended to the Houses.
My other areas of responsibility include the Land Registry, Registry of Deeds, Public Record Office, Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal, Adoption, Censorship of Films and Publications, Aliens' Control and Charitable Donations and Bequests. Unfortunately in the time allotted to me I cannot comment on them now but I shall endeavour to answer any questions that Deputies may wish to ask.
