JUST UNDER €93,000 was paid out per week last year for roaming gardaí.
The payments – made as part of the subsistence allowance gardaí are entitled to – came out at just under €4.9 million in total.
While this figure doesn’t seem like pocket change by anybody’s standard, it does not necessarily indicate frivolous expenditure; spikes in payments are often predictable, and tied to annual festivals or matters of state importance.
This is money given to gardaí for duties carried out away from their base police stations, and while gardaí are not restricted in what they can spend it on, its purpose is mostly for overnight stays and food expenses.
Despite this, a close reading of figures disclosed to TheJournal.ie under the Freedom of Information Act shows that upsurges in demand for gardaí on the ground has mostly come in rural areas.
This is how it all broke down.
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When do gardaí get subsistence payments?
Subsistence payments kick into effect whenever a garda is more than 3.22 kilometres away from their station for a period of more than five hours.
The rates paid out vary depending on how long a garda is away, with special night rates also in places.
On the Garda Representative Association’s website the rate for between five and eight hours away from a station is €12.48; the rate for between eight and 12 hours away is €21.86; and for more than 12 hours away the rate if €31.99.
Special night rates then exist for periods that go beyond this, working out at €107.69 for the first seven nights; €92.97 per night between night seven and 30; and €53.96 after night 30 and up to night 56.
Additional rates also exist for gardaí sleeping accommodation without messing facilities.
What does this tell us?
The big peaks and troughs in gardaí payments can be seen most notably in rural areas.
In the first quarter of 2015, only €8,103 was claimed by gardaí coming into the Sligo/ Leitrim area.
By the third quarter this figure had shot up to €62,878.
While there could be a number of explanations for the spike in Q3, it was a period that saw garda efforts scaled up in the county to tackle rising levels of crime.
In August, crime statistics had shown increases in sexual offences, assaults and robberies, something that prompted an influx of new vehicles and gardaí.
A similar jump could also be seen in Galway.
Subsistence payments in the region went from €44,166 in the first quarter up to €119,172 by the third quarter.
One garda told TheJournal.ie that the spike in subsistence payments in the west could be down to numbers being drafted in to deal with the annual Galway Races, which happen on the last Monday of July.
The Galway division in quarter three of last year was the only area to break €100,000 in subsistence payments outside of Dublin.
It was a period of the year that saw community meetings taking place over upswings in rural crime and a number of high profile incidents in the city centre.
Nationally, payments were higher across the board towards the end of the year.
These went from €879,081 in the first quarter of last year up to €1,364,089 by Q4.
Is all of this a waste of money?
Spikes in gardaí being drafted in to different divisional areas is not an indicator of poor distribution.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie one garda explained that it would be impractical for sparsely populated areas to have year-round full garda coverage
For example, quarter four in the Laois/ Offaly divisional region saw the amount of subsistence claimed go from around the €40,000 mark for the rest of the year up to €94,819.
A fair guess might be that claims for extra staffing during the Electric Picnic and the National Ploughing Championships might have something to do with this.
So everything’s ok then?
The need for gardaí to work outside of their jurisdiction areas hasn’t been without its issues.
Earlier this month trainee gardaí complained after suddenly being told they would be transferred away from the stations they had trained at to Dundalk. And last October it was shown that the majority of the 27 gardaí drafted into the same region in immediate aftermath of Tony Golden’s murder came from the already depleted Cavan/ Monaghan division.
Broadly speaking though, it seems to be a system that works.
When asked for a specific response to the figures by TheJournal.ie, the GRA declined as they could not discern how the total figure was divided up between rank-and-file gardaí and how much of it was accounted for by higher-ranking gardaí.
It did however state:
All Gardaí can be transferred as part and parcel of their role but they are protected by Financial Code F10.
The Department of Justice was also keen to emphasise that transferring gardaí was part of everyday practice, saying that An Garda Síochána “regularly reviews and assesses the capabilities and the deployment of garda resources to provide a policing service that meets the needs of the community”.
It went on to state that the deployment of garda resources and the implementation of policing strategies were matters for the Garda Commissioner, but that:
Due to the operational and evolving nature of policing it is often a requirement that gardaí conduct their duties away from their place of work.
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