Fitzgerald to seek Budget funds for Garda recruitment

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald is to push for a commitment that adequate funding is made available in next week's Budget to ensure Garda numbers are brought up to the levels requested by senior management in the force.

Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has told his Cabinet colleagues that some €600 million "leeway" funding will be made available at best to spread across pressure points in various departments. The vast majority of this will be shared across the departments of health, justice and education.

Speaking at the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary, Ms Fitzgerald said the Government had yet to decide whether further recruitment would take place.

Senior Garda officers have expressed concern that the strength of the force has dipped below 13,000, with just 12,900 members at present.

The first class of Garda recruits for five years began training last month.

Natural wastage

However, with that intake numbering 100, a significant increase in recruitment would be needed to keep pace with the 200to 300 retirements from the force annually.

The strength of the Garda may become an election issue if numbers continue to fall, especially if the first increases in gun and drug crime since 2008 that emerged in the data published last month are sustained or even accelerate.

While declining to detail figures, a well-placed source said the Minister would be aiming to secure enough funding to maintain the number of gardaí at 13,000.

She is also expected to seek capital funding for a significant upgrade of the Garda fleet of cars, as well as an overhaul of the IT systems operated by An Garda Síochána, which a source said would help "underpin" reforms of the force.

Negotiations and discussions are expected to intensify this week, ahead of the October 14th budget.

A meeting of the Economic Management Council – the four-member committee comprising Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Joan Burton, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Mr Howlin – last week focused on tax.

Tax changes

The Taoiseach is reported to favour a cut in the higher 41 per cent rate, with Mr Noonan leaning towards adjusting the bands to raise the entry point for the top rate.

Meanwhile, another Cabinet sub-committee last week heard that the Coalition’s new bank, designed to fund small and medium businesses, will be in a position to start lending by the end of the month.

The statement of Government priorities agreed between Fine Gael and Labour earlier this summer said the Strategic Banking Corporation would make up to €4 billion in "low-cost" funding available to small and medium businesses by 2018.

A memo to the committee on economic recovery and jobs said the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SCBI) "will be launched towards the end of October and the first loans to SMEs are likely to happen before the end of this year".

It is intended that the SCBI will be initially financed by the German Promotional Bank KfW, the European Investment Bank and the Irish Strategic Investment Fund.

The memo is understood to have said the SCBI “must” pass on its lower cost of lending to SMEs.

The SCBI will fund banks and other funds which will, in turn, lend “on a prudent basis” to SMEs. In addition, the SCBI’s loans will be of longer duration than normal, and will have features such as “payment holidays”.