Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will go through the rest of the Votes now.

Vote 24, concerning my Department, has a gross Estimate provision of €2.723 billion. The Revised Estimate for this Vote was already approved in April, and the purpose today is to agree the further Revised Estimate for the Department’s Vote. The further Revised Estimate for the Department reflects the transfer of responsibility for cybersecurity policy, which I mentioned earlier.

Bringing responsibility for cybersecurity under the remit of my Department ensures proper alignment of national security infrastructure. It is appropriate that this be under the Department of justice. That is the only change to the justice Vote previously agreed by Dáil Éireann.

There have been other transfers of functions. The transfer of responsibility for integration policy, international protection and Ukraine accommodation services to my Department happened on 1 May 2025. This was the largest transfer of functions across government, in terms of both the number of staff who transferred and the budget of over €2 billion. Following that transfer, the Revised Estimates Volume for the Department is now set out across three programmes: criminal justice, civil justice, and international protection and Ukraine accommodation services.

Funding to support domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services has increased to €70 million.

The National Office for Community Safety was established following the commencement of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024. A sum of €9.5 million was allocated in budget 2025 for that office to support the community safety partnerships.

A considerable investment of €25 million has been included to support the delivery of immigration services, to streamline and speed up the international protection process through investment in the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, and to prepare us for the new international protection Bill that I have introduced.

Youth justice funding has been increased by €2.6 million to €33 million. Funding of over €21 million to the Probation Service will provide for additional staff to do its excellent work. Additional funding of just over €6 million was provided to support the work to establish the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland.

Funding for the Legal Aid Board amounted to €54 million in 2024 and I am pleased that an additional €10 million is going to be included in the Revised Estimate for 2025, bringing its allocation to over €64 million. That is what I wanted to say in respect of the justice Vote.

Then there is the prisons Vote. On Vote 21, the prisons Vote, the gross Estimate in 2025 is €525 million, which includes a capital allocation of €53 million for the year. In June of this year, as we know, there is a significant number of people in prison. There are 5,400 people in prison, which is a high number.

We are making key investments in 2025 to support the prisons in doing the work they do, including €18.5 million to recruit 300 additional staff, and a further €6.2 million to fund 130,000 additional hours. We are also increasing the non-pay allocations in 2025 to strengthen rehabilitation, improve medical care and invest in staff training, etc. We have allocated €53 million in capital funding under the prisons Vote this year, with the bulk of that, €46.5 million, going towards our building and refurbishment programme. As part of this, 159 new prison spaces have been delivered since the start of 2024 and a further 100 will be delivered in 2025. These investments are essential to ensure we up our prison space. We need to be increasing prison space significantly. We have not done so, notwithstanding the fact our population has increased significantly.

We have also committed €4 million in capital funding to ICT improvements in the prisons and €2.5 million to fleet upgrades. I acknowledge the excellent work and professionalism of the Irish Prison Service and the staff within it, who do excellent work. Since I was appointed, I have visited five prisons. I am going to visit them all. They do very good work in difficult circumstances.

I will now look at the final Votes I am looking for approval for today. On the courts Vote, a total Estimate in gross terms of almost €199.8 million is being provided for the Courts Service under Vote 22. The allocation of a further €2 million allows for the progression of the courts modernisation programme. The Courts Service modernisation programme is the ten-year programme that will deliver a new operating model for the Courts Service.

I am committed to driving the modernisation and digital first agenda across the entire justice sector and I welcome the commitment set out by the Courts Service to maximise the use of digital technologies. Some €1.4 million in funding has also been provided for up to 35 additional staff to directly support the work of new members of the Judiciary, which will future-proof judicial supports in light of current backlogs, expected demands and future reforms. A further €2 million in extra support has been provided to meet the additional operational costs across the Courts Service.

The allocation for the Data Protection Commission, Vote 44, includes an increase of €1 million, a small increase. The funding allocation in 2015 was €3.65 million. The 2025 budget allocation allows for the appointment of two new commissioners as well as the recruitment of additional staff.

That is an overview of all the Votes we are asking for approval for today, and I will take whatever questions the committee has.