Garda Síochána garners over 50% of annual Justice Department budget

THE Garda Síochána accounts for well over half of the annual €1.85 billion budget of the Department of Justice, according to its annual report for 2004 published yesterday.

The proportion of the department’s budget allotted to policing is likely to increase as the size of the force is increased by 2,000 to 14,000 over the next three years.

In his foreword to the report, Justice Minister Michael McDowell reiterated that the target of 14,000 officers would be achieved by 2008, and that the new Traffic Corps would have 1,200 gardaí assigned to it by then.