More gardaí, but overtime is slashed

GARDA numbers will continue to grow under Budget 2009, but the force’s overtime budget is being slashed by up to a third.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said his priority was the fight against crime, but the equality, domestic violence and anti-racism areas bear the brunt of the cutbacks.

Mr Ahern said he faced a choice between having more guards or more overtime.

“I really had a choice between keeping the Garda overtime at a high level and freeze Garda numbers, or else allowing Garda numbers to increase and sweat out efficiencies in Garda overtime.

He said more than 400 additional gardaí would be in place by the end of 2009, bringing the strength of the force to 14,900. He said numbers had jumped from 12,200 at the end of 2004 to 14,267. But he said the Garda overtime budget would drop from the allocated budget of €108m in 2008 to €80m in 2009, a drop of 26%. However, the actual overtime expenditure this year is expected to reach €120m, which would mean a drop of 33%.

Mr Ahern said he had ringfenced €21m out of the €80m for Operation Anvil, which targets organised crime. This is a rise of €1m in its budget.

In addition to that, he said he was significantly increasing the funding for the Criminal Assets Bureau next year, from €7.3m to €8.7m (a 20% rise) to target the wealth of organised crime.

Elsewhere, he said, he was allocating €18m towards a new forensic science and state pathology laboratory, as well as €49mtowards Garda technology and communication programmes. In addition, he was allocating €10m towards the roll-out of 600 speed cameras in 2009.

Some €52m is being allocated to the prisons building programme (same as 2007), which will secure 300 additional places. He said this did not include Thornton Hall, which, he said, was going ahead. TheProbation Service budget is being cut by 3%, from €54m to €52m, while Youth Justice Service is up 2%, from €60m to €61m.

Mr Ahern said there would be savings of €11m (or 4%) across 20 agencies in the department.

The biggest losers are the Office of the Minister for Integration, whose budget drops by 26%, from €9.3m to €6.9m; the Equality Authority, whose budget is slashed by 43%, from €5.9m to €3.3m and Cosc (the domestic violence agency), whose budget is down 18%, from €3.45m to €2.85m.

In addition, the Equality Authority and the Human Rights Commission will “integrate their facilities” and the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism is being abolished.

The only equality area receiving an increase is the Equality Tribunal (up 15%).

Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan said gangland criminals would be celebrating the cuts in garda overtime.

“Ordinary people are now literally in the firing line after the Government’s botched handling of the economy, as Gardaí will be hampered by Budget cuts in their efforts to protect citizens from crime and conduct investigations.”

* Overall Justice Vote down 2%, from €2.695 billion to €2.629bn.

* Garda Budget down 2%, from €1.616bn to €1.589bn

* Prison Budget down 2%, from €394 million to €386m

* Courts Service Budget down 6%, from €136m to €128m

* Equality Budget down 30%, from €34m to €24m