Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 60: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of civilian personnel currently employed by An Garda Síochána; if he is satisfied with the progress of civilianisation within the organisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27167/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The civilianisation programme proposed for An Garda Síochána is being implemented by the Garda Commissioner and significant progress has been made to date in the recruitment of civilian staff. The total number of full and part-time civilian staff assigned to the Garda Síochána as at the 30th June 2008 has increased to 2,549 from 2,267 on 10th December 2007. This represents just over 14% of organisational workforce.

Civilian staff are involved in the provision of a wide range of important support services in the administrative, professional, technical and industrial areas. This is best demonstrated by the range of recruitment of civilians that has taken place in the Garda organisation as follows:—

Over 300 Clerical Officers have been recruited and assigned positions within An Garda Síochána in Dublin in 2007 on foot of a Government Decision of 19 December 2006. These Clerical Officers have been allocated to the Dublin Metropolitan Region, Garda Headquarters and various Specialised Units.

The civilianisation of posts at senior levels of An Garda Síochána has also commenced. Appointments have been made to the positions of Chief Administration Officer and Director of ICT. Competitions to recruit the Director of Change Management and Head of Legal Services are at an advanced stage, while recruitment for the positions of Executive Director of Human Resources and Executive Director of Finance will commence as soon as possible. A significant number of other senior and middle management civilian posts have also been created in areas such as HR, Finance, Procurement, IT, Housing, Transport, Crime & Policing Analysis and Internal Audit.

As well as the expansion of the senior civilian management cadre, approximately 150 new management and supervisory positions have been created throughout the country at Higher Executive Officer, Executive Officer and Staff Officer levels. As well as enhancing the capacity of the organisation to manage its rapidly increasing civilian complement — and allowing sworn members to concentrate on operational duties — this has provided a career structure for Garda civilian staff which did not exist before.

A number of vacancies in other technical areas such as cartography, telecommunications, accountancy, photography have also been filled in the recent past.

Significant progress is underway in recruiting 300 Clerical Officers to Garda stations outside Dublin, the Garda Central Vetting Unit, Thurles and the Garda Information Services Centre, Castlebar. There has been a net increase (after promotions, transfers etc) of 212 Clerical Officers in areas outside the DMR between May 2007 and 30 June 2008.

I have been informed by the Commissioner that he has established a group to review the potential for further civilianisation and to develop an integrated strategy for future civilianisation in the Garda organisation. This group is due to submit a final report to the Commissioner by the end of September 2008.

An Garda Síochána is committed to developing the civilian support and management function within the Organisation to a level commensurate with best international practice and will continue to work to drive the civilianisation programme forward.