In anticipation of upcoming legislation, start-up funding of €0.25 million has been provided for both the Judicial Appointments Commission and the Judicial Council.
A further €10 million goes towards policing transformation measures, out of the total €2.57 billion Justice expenditure, which is an increase of €139 million on 2018.
And GSOC is beefing up its protected disclosures unit with an additional €1.6 million, bringing its total budget to €10.7 million.
CAB, the Data Protection Commission, and Forensic Science Ireland will all see additional monies go their way, with €76 million in capital funding for the new Forensic Science Laboratory, Limerick Prison redevelopment, and Garda mobile technology and transport investment.
New female prison
Limerick Prison will be overhauled to get in-cell sanitation and the minister is planning a new, dedicated, standalone female prison for the Munster region.
A total budget of € 55.8 million is being provided to Forensic Science Ireland in 2019, of which €43.6 million is capital, in response to its increasing workload and the complexity of its cases, the Minister said.
The total policing budget goes up by €110 million to €1.76 billion, giving scope for an additional 800 recruits, as well as further civilian hires in areas with critical skills gaps.
The Garda capital allocation has increased from €61 million to €92 million in 2019, a 50 per cent increase, with €65 million expected to be spent on IT, a €10 million investment on transport, and €17 million on a building programme.
A total of €5 million is earmarked for training and deployment of handheld devices to enable gardaí to process information in real-time.
An additional €72 million has been provided for Garda payroll costs, bringing the wages total to €1.05 billion, with €95 million available for the overtime budget.
Fine Gael Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said that he was pleased that the force will number 14,000 by the end of this year.
A further €0.7 million is earmarked for new hires at the Criminal Assets Bureau, bringing its total funding to €8.6 million.
Reception and integration agency accommodation costs go up €4 million to €70.6 million, with general spending on immigration up €2.6 million to €71.4 million.
Data protection increase
The Data Protection Commission gets an additional €3.6 million, bringing its total to €15.3 million while an extra €1.5 million goes to Probation and Irish Youth Justice Services in 2019, giving a total to €61 million.
Additional funding has also been provided to the Parole Board, the National Disability Authority and the Legal Aid Board. The expanding remit of the Private Security Authority is reflected in additional funding of €0.3 million (total budget €3.3 million).
Prisons get additional funding of just under €18 million, including €8 million in capital funding, bringing total expenditure to €359 million.
The total of €2.792 billion breaks down as follows: An Garda Síochána (€1.760 billion), prisons (€359 million), Courts Service (€138 million), Department of Justice and Equality (€525 million), Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (€6.8 million), and Policing Authority (€3.4 million).