The success of the Garda aerial wing in tracking terrorist and criminal operations has led the Government to provide £2.3 million in next year's Department of Justice Estimates for a second Garda helicopter.
The aerial wing has been in operation for just over a year but, as the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said yesterday, the helicopter and fixed-wing surveillance aircraft have already been involved in 1,638 operations.
Commenting on the allocation of £580 million for Garda expenditure for 1999, Mr O'Donoghue singled out the record of the aerial wing for commendation. "The existing helicopter which we brought into service in September last year has proved to be a spectacular success as an operational and tactical aid to the gardai, both in crime detection and prevention."
He said the helicopter and aircraft accumulating a total of 1,227 flying hours. The two aircraft crews had provided cover for Garda operations ranging from traffic monitoring to emergency incident response.
Although there has been no official comment, it is known that Garda management and the government have been impressed by the work carried out by the unit in watching criminal and terrorist suspects.
Mr O'Donoghue said the aerial wing had been involved in cases in which some 219 people had been arrested and 122 vehicles and stolen property to the value of £538,000 recovered.
"We now plan to build on that success with the second Garda helicopter and the intention is that greater use will also be made of one or other of the helicopters in helping to alleviate traffic problems in Dublin and on national routes."
The estimate for current expenditure on the Garda Siochana next year goes up to £580 million - an increase of nearly £90 million. This is likely to include further substantial expenditure on Garda overtime.
Although the 1998 overtime bill - at about £50 million - will be the highest on record, it is understood that the Government was very impressed at the results of Garda operations against drug-traffickers and dissident republican groups, including the "Real IRA" group responsible for the Omagh bombing on August 15th. The overall Garda budget includes £3.8 million for the Garda College in Templemore which will accommodate an increased intake of recruits to meet the Government target of 550 new gardai in the coming year.
The Government is providing £20 million for a new computerised information network for the force. The new network, PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively), is due to be introduced in February. Talks are taking place with Garda staff associations about the implementation of the new computers.
The system, when it is in place, will allow gardai to pass information around the State on a secure computerised network.
The Garda Estimates also include £1 million for the purchase of additional traffic law-enforcement equipment including speed-detection equipment such as fixed cameras and new traffic vehicles.
In the Estimates for prisons, £10 million has been provided for the building costs of the first phase of four new wings in Mountjoy Prison. This is part of a plan to increase national prison accommodation from just over 2,000 to about 3,300.
Mountjoy is the State's only committal prison for people remanded in custody or convicted by the Central and Circuit Courts in Dublin. It has accommodation for just over 400 but often has more than 600 inmates, causing severe overcrowding and often leading to short-term prisoners being freed well before they have completed their sentences.
Commenting on the new Mountjoy blocks, which are due for completion in four years, Mr O'Donohgue said: "I am particularly pleased to have secured funding to start the long overdue refurbishment of Mountjoy Prison.
"For many years Mountjoy Prison was synonymous with over crowding and the lack of facilities within the Irish prison system. My current programme of new prison building has presented me with a timely opportunity to address the unacceptable situation in Mountjoy.
"I am seizing that opportunity and I am determined to ensure that the many deficiencies in that prison are put to right, once and for all."
The overall justice Estimate, at £904.8 million, is the highest ever provision for justice expenditure. Last year's was £781.3 million.