Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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439. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the estimated full-year cost of increasing the training allowance of Garda recruits to €205 per week. [21285/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, in accordance with the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the general management and administration of the Garda organisation, including all human resource matters and recruitment. As Minister, I have no direct role in these matters.

To be of assistance I sought the information requested by the Deputy from An Garda Síochána. I have been informed that an increase in the training allowance of Garda recruits to €205 over the 33 week training period would result in an increase of €754.05 per recruit. Further detail is provided in the below tables.

The current weekly cost of one Garda recruit is

If weekly allowance for one Garda recruit was increased to €205

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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440. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of Garda cars and vans attached to the Garda dog unit as of 2 May 2023; and if he will provide the corresponding figures as of 31 January 2021, in tabular form. [21286/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I have contacted An Garda Síochána for the information requested by the Deputy, regretfully this information was not available in time. I will write to the Deputy once the information is to hand.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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441. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of civilian WTE staff, by grade, working in the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau in 2021, 2022 and to date in 2023, in tabular form; and if this number will be further increased. [21287/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including for the recruitment, training and allocation of Garda members and staff to a given unit. As Minister, I have no role in such matters.

The below table indicates the number of civilian WTE staff, by grade, working in the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) at 31/12/2021.

Below are the figures for 31/12/2022:

Below are the figures as of 31/03/2023.

Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) numbers are provided to indicate that Garda Staff work on a number of different work-sharing patterns of varying hours. The WTE number reflects the number of whole time staff required to work the number of hours provided by the staff actually employed.

To be of assistance, I can also inform the Deputy that there has been a just over 35% increase in Garda members allocated to GNECB since the end of 2020, up from 73 to 99 at the end of March 2023.