JUSTICE: There is no provision in the Estimates for the additional 2,000 gardaí promised in the Programme for Government.
However, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr McDowell, said that the question of the extra gardaí would be the subject of a separate submission to Government.
Overall, the Estimate for the Department goes up from €1.58 billion to €1.7 billion, an increase of 7 per cent.
The allocation to the Garda Síochána goes up from €919 million to €938 million, an increase of 2 per cent, which is below the rate of inflation. This did not include any allowance for benchmarking, Mr McDowell said.
An increase of 26 per cent for office machinery would allow the computer equipment necessary for the points system to be developed.
The allocation for wages and salaries is up only 1 per cent, well below the rate of inflation.
Mr McDowell said he expected to see savings in overtime payments for gardaí, which came to almost €60 million last year.
He also expected major reductions in prison officers' overtime which also came to €60 million last year, though there were only 3,000 prison officers compared with 12,000 gardaí. "I will be putting a new deal to the prison officers on the overtime issue," he said.
An open prison will be closed and its officers redeployed.
The money raised will be used in other areas.
Shanganagh in Shankill, Co Dublin, would be the most valuable property and also houses the fewest prisoners, so is the most likely target.
In the probation service, both operating expenses and services to offenders are to be cut by 5 and 4 per cent respectively.
Asked if it would not be more economical to divert more offenders from prison to the probation service, Mr McDowell said he had deferred legislation on a prisons board because he was considering establishing an integrated service, a prisons and corrections board.
The court-building programme will also be cut, with flagship projects such as the refurbishment of Cork courthouse and the new family law court on Ormond Quay to be funded through public-private partnerships (PPPs).
Mr McDowell said he also favoured PPPs for the operation of some of the new technology being introduced by the Courts Service, such as video links between courts and prisons, courts and witnesses.
The allocation to the Legal Aid Board and the grant to the voluntary Free Legal Advice Centres. Legal aid to asylum-seekers is also cut.
About €200 million will be spent on refugees and asylum-seekers this year and could go up to €300 million in 2003, according to Mr McDowell.
Among the big losers were organisations representing the disabled, with a reduction of 44 per cent in the allocation for the Status of People with Disabilities, equality monitoring and consultative committees, which loses 48 per cent, and the Anti-Racism Awareness Campaign, which loses 63 per cent.
The Equality Authority and the Equality Tribunal also have their allocations cut by 5 and 4 per cent.
Some €830,000 is provided in the Estimates for the Secret Service. The Minister for Justice told The Irish Times that this expenditure was "secret" and was sought annually by the Minister for Justice from the Minister for Finance.
It was spent on the payment of informers and the relocation of people where necessary.