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THE MUSICAL BAND maintained by An Garda Síochána has cost taxpayers to the tune of €5.5 million in the past three years, new figures have revealed.
The Garda Band is comprised of 29 full-time musicians, who perform at a variety of national events including the Rose of Tralee Festival, the National Ploughing Championships, and the St Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin.
Members of the band, none of whom are involved in policing duties, were paid an average of €58,985 each last year; and racked up transport, travel and subsistence expenses of €88,487 between 2014 and 2016.
Clothing and accessories for the Garda Band also cost the taxpayer €78,677 during the same period, while a further €70,426 was spent on communications and other equipment for the troupe.
The revelation that the Garda Band accounted for €5,478,764 of police spending during the past three years emerges less than a week after the scarcity of resources within An Garda Síochána came under scrutiny before the Oireachtas Justice Committee.
Last Thursday, Acting Garda Commissioner John Twomey told the Committee that the force’s overtime budget for 2017 was “under significant strain” and it had been necessary for Garda management to seek extra funding.
At the end of November, all non-essential overtime had to be reduced for a period of six days in an attempt to bring spending back in line with its budget. The overtime allocation for next year has also been reduced, said Twomey.
Records released under the Freedom of Information Act show that the cost of maintaining the Garda Band has increased by more than 5% in the past three years despite the number of members being reduced from 30 to 29.
In addition to salaries and allowances amounting to €5.2 million between 2014 and 2016, a total of €24,480 was spent on “training, development and incidental” expenses for the band; while €10,864 was spent in connection with the band’s premises in Phoenix Park.
The band provides music for official functions, such as graduation ceremonies at the Garda College in Co Tipperary, according to the police authority’s website.
“The band undertakes a heavy, community-oriented programme each year, performing at schools, festivals and sporting events,” it states.
“It has a long association with Lansdowne Road for rugby and soccer internationals, the St Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin, and the Rose of Tralee Festival.
“The band has travelled to many international events and has represented the country on a number of occasions at police festivals and concerts in Switzerland, Germany and Northern Ireland.”
The Garda Band was established shortly after the foundation of An Garda Síochána in 1922. It was disbanded in November 1965 and its 35 full-time members were told to report for ordinary policing duties.
The decision was taken by then-Justice Minister Brian Lenihan, who said that the band had “outlived its usefulness” and that the cost of maintaining it was “excessive, wasteful, and out of all proportion to any purpose served”.
The band was re-established in 1972, however, to mark the 50th anniversary of the foundation of An Garda Síochána, and has remained a part of the force ever since.
The garda press office did not respond to a request for comment.
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All well and good, but seeing as many of the insurance companies and developers are either refusing to cover, or have no many to cover houses affected by pyrite, what use is this bill going to be other than an empty gesture.
Agree 100 %. Am I not correct in thinking that the Staute of Limitation only starts running from the time you are AWARE of the problem ?
Its a grey area, some solicitors will say that it begins from when your keys are handed over and some will say that its from when the problem arose. Neither has been tested yet.
the fact that a government official has the b*lls to bring this to the dail ready for presentation in the form of a bill is a major leap forward for people affected by homes built with pyrite. it will mean when people go to seek remedial works with companies, they are protected by law to request remedial works and may not face lengthy and costly legal battles with corporates until the statute of limitations comes into effect! in other words it will stop the people, who knew what they were doing when buying or selling concrete, wrangling out of their wrong doings and getting away with ensuring remedial works are done because of a lack of legal protection for the home owners concerned!
Our house had a pyrite problem and has just been fixed after 5 years of wrangling with the insurer. Good luck to anyone trying to get this solved. It is a major headache. Like everything in this country, it’ll take one of these houses falling down on someone for the Govt. to do something about it.
Many homeowners held off having their homes repaired because they thought the good times were rolling with the likelihood of huge legal damages being awarded in their favour by the Courts and then the builders went bang! Householders in that position would be unable to claim against anyone once the six years have passed never mind an extension.
“Many homeowners”? Really? I can only speak for myself and the people in our estate, but as soon as we found out about the problem everyone wanted it fixed as soon as possible. No-one gave a toss about pursuing for personal loss. The Premier Home Insurance policy that we had was for 10 years from the point of sale (in 2004). Why would people drag it out on the off chance that they might get some compo, when the by far greater and more real risk was that the policy would lapse and you’d have to get it fixed yourself? If you don’t get your house fixed, you can’t sell it (a bank will most probably not give someone a mortgage to buy a house with pyrite as a surveyor can’t say for certain that the problem has stopped). Therefore, why would anyone take this silly gamble that you suggest?
My house has Pyrite and I tell you if I could get it fixed I would but we can’t. Our builder and quarry are gone and Homebond want nothing to do wit us (whole other can of worms). The stress that we have gone through over the past six years is unbelievable. I can’t walk into my house without seeing the cracks getting worse every day. We bought this house in good faith and it has failed as a home. I cannot even read the word Pyrite without having palpitations. The stress involved is phenomenal. If it was anything else we would be entitled to compensation but no, we can’t even get our house fixed, which at the end of the day is all we want.
I really feel for you. We were just lucky that the house we bought had Premier Home Insurance. I wouldn’t have known the difference between the two when we bought the house: we bloody do know though! Like you, we didn’t give a toss about compo, we just wanted our house fixed and happened to have bought one that had an insurance policy. Home Bond is a total joke in this regard: it’s not insurance as it’s not an underwritten policy that you can claim against. And it’s not a guarantee or a warranty either. Just words on a page that are worthless.
Considering a lot of developers have hit the wall, who is going to stump up and pay compensation?
This is exactly why the Pyrite panel has been set up. Pyrite action have proposed a Levy on the construction industry to ensure that all involved (quarries, developers, builders etc.) contribute to sorting out this mess.
Is that really you Michael j fox? Wow.
Edit: that is to say that neither of them had insurance. The only insurance was the Premier Home Insurance policy that we had. So, if Premier refused to pay us we would have had to pursue the builder and quarry on the basis of litigation not claiming against another policy that they had.
Your Builder and Quarry both had insurance of some sort that can still be pursued within the six year limit?
Both gone bust and are totally potless now. Claim all you want, but where are they going to get the cash to fix 100+ houses at €100k a house?
have your say