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ONE GARDA WAS paid €68,641 in overtime for the first 11 eleven months of this year.
That would triple the pay of a new garda and more than double the pay of a senior garda who can earn up to €50,448 in basic pay.
Information provided to TheJournal.ie under Freedom of Information shows 12 gardaí, seven sergeants and one inspector received the top 20 overtime payments.
Up until the end of October, almost €107 million was spent on garda overtime in total. That’s a €36 million increase from last year – when that figure was €71 million.
Last month, it emerged that an order had been sent to every station in Dublin by the Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy banning all overtime for the month of December.
However, it later emerged that overtime in December would be paid as it would come from next year’s garda budget.
At the time the President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) Ciaran O’Neill said that overtime was being used to supplement the force because there were insufficient numbers of gardaí servicing the State. Speaking on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1, O’Neill said:
Overtime is the cheapest form of policing and it has been used in the past to fill the numbers.
A garda spokesperson told this website, “The nature of garda work and the requirement that the garda authorities respond, in some cases at short notice, to immediate policing demands means that there is a necessity to incur overtime expenses to ensure effective policing.
Accordingly, there will always be a need for a certain level of overtime to allow An Garda Siochana flexibility when responding to circumstances that require additional resources for specific operations.
Top 20
The top 20 individual payments up until 22 November this year range from €57,061 to €74,268, totalling €1,247,026.
That’s means each garda in the top 20 took home €62,350 on average. Overtime is only payable to members at garda, sergeant and inspector rank.
For a larger image of the above table, click here.
Gardaí can be paid two different rates for overtime – a rate of time and a half or a double time rate.
Gardaí who are recruited now start off on €28,405.30 – including rent allowance of €4,655.30 – with an overtime rate of either €14.58 or €19.44 an hour.
On the other end of the scale, gardaí recruited between 1995 and 2013 can earn up to €50,448.30 after 17 years service. They would have an overtime rate of either €25.90 up to €34.53 an hour.
However a spokesperson for An Garda Siochana told TheJournal.ie that double pay is only applicable for Sundays and bank holidays.
Given this information, TheJournal.ie has worked out that a garda on the very highest rate of pay who worked 40 hours of overtime a month on the higher rate of overtime, would need to work 228 hours of overtime a month to make €68,641.
While the average working week for a garda works out at 40 hours per week, the actual working pattern for a garda working on a regular unit is six days on and four days off.
According to our calculations, the garda on the highest rate of pay would need to work around 15-16 hours a day, six days a week constantly to manage to earn that much in overtime in the year.
The Freedom of Information officer did note that the figures given referred to the amount of overtime paid out and not necessarily the period within which the costs were incurred.
However it was also noted that payment of overtime is generally issued within two weeks after the end of each roster.
“Overtime can be incurred in two different months and paid out in a different third month. For example, overtime incurred on 13 August 2017 is included in the roster ending 10 September 2017 which was paid in early October 2017.”
As a result, some of the overtime worked up until 22 November may not have been recorded in what was paid out up to that date. However, as these figures are from 1 January – it could also be the case that hours worked in December and November 2016 were included in payments that would have been made in January 2017.
Therefore, the information given represents almost an 11 month period of average overtime and payments.
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RTE 1 Good evening and here is the news. Only six or seven people were shot in Dublin this evening but sources say it has nothing to do with the main gangs that are shooting each other. As soon as the smoke clears we will bring you further updates!
You forgot the reassuring soundbite full of jargon from francis the sycophantic social worker..
Seems like more of a punishment shooting than anything else 3 in the arm one in the leg.
Or the other way round lol
punishment? you think he was a bold boy?
Either that or the shooter has a very bad aim . Maybe it was his first time …
they are blooding new talent these days
Assel
Do you know know what a punishment shooting means?
Dublin 2016 = lawless to the point where lawlessness has now become normalized.
Take a bow Frances, Acting Minister for Chaos and Lawlessness.
are you threatening me Nick?
LOL……
@Assel, If you are going to troll the Journal, at least learn to read and write at a reasonable standard of English. God Bless you, Father Stack
Brian…give poor francis a break…she knows that behind every assassin..every killer,every thug,gunman,hitman,psychopath,drug dealer…lies a vulnerable individual.
Well if it is a so-called punishment shooting, carried out in Clondalkin, then it would probably the CIRA. And that would mean that so-called dissidents were out on the streets shooting people, and given all the connotations of the Kinihan-Hutch feud, any such shooting should be regarded as related.
Leave my name out of this please
Ironically in Frances’ constituency. Everyone was all over it during the election. A baby almost killed in Finglas. Cowards gunning down an innocent man in town, mistaken identity… And last week no less than 2 shootings in the same night and now this.
The Juan Kerr’s in government should hang their heads in shame. They only gave a a fook about being re-elected
Where’s the armed Garda patrol and checkpoints now? I didn’t see a single checkpoint at all this bank holiday. Couldn’t do (say) enough a few weeks back
I didn’t vote for you Frances. Your a disgrace, letting the criminals shoot the place out of it
Ah poor francis…she totally wants to conduct an intervention with these vulnerable groups of armed men and young people…perhaps a family welfare conference or two…perhaps approach the “issue” from a strenghts based perspective with a view to a wrap around care package for the most vulnerable gang members and targetted support – bespoke of course – for the remainder.Gardai operating in the area will of course wear tracksuits…to do otherwise may offend the the vulnerable gang members sensetivities and possibly upset them.
You forgot about the Nike trainers , dead giveaway if the Gardai are not wearing them !
Ah Sis…easy knowing im not from a social work background…duffer and armani tracksuits i know about…didnt think of the de rigeur Nike’s…thankfully francis is “across this” and will have vouchers to hand…
Bro , you’re right I’m sure she’ll have every angle covered … she’s usually on top of things .
Shocking so two gangs killing each other and now random shootings time for a zero tolerance policy on organised crime and use of guns in crime more eru on streets open back up the stations and get more gaurds on the beat enough is enough
we need a story about Halawa hurry up …. forget this Irish stuff make us feel guilty.
Shooting in Dublin !!
As long as it isn’t in Dartry or Milltown where the Defence barristers and Judges live then there is no need to worry.
no shooting in dublin 6 so do you think people get shot for no apparent reason at all?
Worse it’s getting instead of better!
Thanks Yoda.
Whatever he did it almost cost him an arm and a leg.
Elmo must be back again
Francis is a male and Frances is a female for all the people who seem to get mixed up, only saying.
Hope he wasn’t a Leicester City fan
Chat shit get banged!
Shit shot, bang bang
Victim known by the authorities???
Think he was a spurs fan.
gang bang …..
here
have your say