Results 21-40 of 1,137,986 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Peter Burke OR speaker:Barry Cowen OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Alan Farrell OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Maurice Quinlivan OR speaker:Christopher O'Sullivan OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Verona Murphy OR speaker:Gary Gannon OR speaker:Pearse Doherty OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae OR speaker:Eoin Ó Broin OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Pa Daly OR speaker:Helen McEntee OR speaker:Brendan Smith OR speaker:Seán Canney OR speaker:Noel Grealish OR speaker:Paschal Donohoe OR speaker:Louise O'Reilly OR speaker:Carol Nolan OR speaker:Fergus O'Dowd OR speaker:Brian Stanley)

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Maurice Quinlivan: To clarify, the Minister of State referred to creating a number of jobs outside of Ireland. Did she mean outside of Dublin?

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Maurice Quinlivan: I was getting worried there for a minute. I thank the Minister of State. I propose that the consideration of Supplementary Estimates by the committee has concluded. Is that agreed? Agreed. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, for assisting the committee in its consideration of the Supplementary Estimates.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Maurice Quinlivan: I should have thanked them as well. I thank the Minister of State and her officials for coming.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Business of Select Committee (17 Oct 2024)

Maurice Quinlivan: For the attention of members, the imeachtaí of the committee's meeting on 16 October have been circulated. Do members have any comments on those? No. Are they agreed? Agreed.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Message to Dáil (17 Oct 2024)

Maurice Quinlivan: In accordance with Standing Order 101, the following message will be sent to the Clerk of the Dáil: The Select Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment has completed its consideration of the following Supplementary Estimates for public services for the year ending 31 December 2024: Vote 32 - Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: Good afternoon, Chair. I thank members for making time to consider these Supplementary Estimates. I am joined from the Department by Ms Yvonne Furey, assistant secretary, Ms Niamh Merrigan, assistant principal, and Mr. Aonghus O'Connor, principal officer. On Vote 20, budget 2024 reflects the commitment of the Government to ensuring our communities are safe and that An Garda...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Pa Daly: I thank the Minister for her statement. I have a few questions. I note the offset in the underspends. First, there is not enough spending on the Garda Reserve due to delays in recruitment. Is that likely to happen this year? What are the reasons for the delays?

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: It is due to a recruitment competition. It is a matter of going through the process working with the Public Appointments Service. It is likely it will be next year before we have some of our first new recruits. The competition resulted in 1,800 people applying to become members of the Garda Reserve. We are still going through that recruitment process with the 1,800 applicants.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Pa Daly: No new people have been recruited. Is that what the Minister is saying?

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: No one has been recruited yet. It was hoped that it would happen by the end of the year, but it will most likely be early next year.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Pa Daly: Does the Minister accept there are fewer than 100 members of the Garda Reserve in Dublin at this stage?

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: I will have to come back to the Deputy with the exact figure in Dublin. I do not have that currently. We have set a target of having an additional 2,000 members of the Garda Reserve by 2026.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Pa Daly: Is the Minister happy with the pace of recruitment? There is an issue with Garda visibility on the streets of Dublin in particular for a long time now.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: I am happy that the reserve competition was opened for the first time in approximately seven years. I am satisfied there was significant interest in the competition. Obviously, I want to see our newer members come through as quickly as possible.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Pa Daly: The Minister must have misheard me. Is she happy with the pace of recruitment to the Garda Reserve?

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: The competition is ongoing. While I would have liked to have seen it completed by the end of the year, the process is progressing well. I hope to see new Garda Reserve recruits fully through the system by early next year and out on the beat supporting our gardaí.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Pa Daly: As for the Garda College, one of the other underspends, the underspend is due to a lower number of trainees than anticipated. The Minister stated she wants between 800 and 1,000 new trainees entering Templemore Garda College per year. She will be aware that the number of retirements will peak in three or four years, with some 1,400 retirements in 2028. It is clear there will be a problem,...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: To answer the initial question about the reason for the underspend this year, we had funded for the higher end of that target. There were 746 trainees last year. Obviously, we do not have the full and final number for this year. While I appreciate we have not reached the higher end of our target, a number of things have been done to ensure we can increase Garda numbers, not just this year...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Pa Daly: I will address the age increase shortly. Is the Minister happy with the pace of recruitment into An Garda Síochána given that the population of the State has increased by 20% in the past ten years while the number of gardaí has remained the same? That is already creating big challenges when it comes to visibility, police presence, eliminating the fear of crime people have and...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: Yes. While I would like it to be higher, I am happy that last year we had six times more people than we had in the previous year. Obviously, we want that to continue.