JUSTICE:GARDA EXPENDITURE will fall by more than any other area across the €2.24 billion total justice spend next year with nearly four-fifths of Garda savings coming from pay-related items.
Total Garda spending will reach €1.368 billion, down 9 per cent.
The witness protection programme is one of the few areas to receive increased funding, with spending on it set to more than double next year to €1.2 million, up from €498,000.
Expenditure in almost every other area of the force, including the maintenance of Garda stations, the Garda plane and money for witness expenses, to name but a few, is reduced.
The cuts will likely exacerbate the strained relations between the Government and the Garda Representative Association.
Despite the cuts, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said fighting crime would remain a top priority. He was allocating €4 million for the long promised DNA database and €4.5 million for the new State pathologist laboratory.
However, he has now said the number of Garda members by the end of this year will reach “approximately 14,500”. This is some way off the 14,800 promised only months ago, before the extent of early retirements became known.
Expenditure across the prison service will reach €334 million next year, down 8 per cent on 2009. Some €16.4 million of the €29.5 million reduction is achieved via pay cuts and reductions in professional fees.
Courts spending will actually increase, due to the new courts complex in Dublin, which will cost a once-off capital payment of €21 million and annual repayments of a further €21 million.
A planned cut of 15 per cent in criminal legal aid is being sought while the civil legal aid budget is to be cut by 5 per cent.
The Equality Authority and the Human Rights Commission retain their 2009 budgets. They were cut by 43 and 23 per cent respectively last year. The Equality Tribunal faces a cut of 8 per cent.