Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The increase of €360,000 probably is on the small side so I imagine when it comes to negotiating a budget for next year, should we get this legislation passed, I will look for more than that, since 22 extra staff will cost more than that.

I will be looking for a larger increase than that next year, assuming we get the legislation through. I will provide an outline of the proposed increase in staff. On the Civil Service side, it will be two principal officers, three assistant principal officer equivalents - digital forensics, an enforcement lawyer and an ICT manager - one higher executive officer, two executive officers and five clerical officers. There will be an additional eight gardaí, which is an increase to 16. I believe those gardaí get paid through the Garda Vote. As such, this budget does not fully reflect how much will be spent.

If we can double the number of gardaí and increase the number of civilian staff by 22 over the next two or three years, we will see how it goes. Since public bodies tend to expand over the years, I imagine that this will be a much larger body in five or ten years' time than it is now. We will be doing well if we can get this legislation through and scale up the agency into something much stronger than what it is now.