Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated 11.05pm
PAYMENTS OF GARDA allowances and overtime for November will be delayed again this year, TheJournal.ie has learned, with members having to wait until January to receive the payments.
These payments are generally paid two or three weeks in arrears but a legacy has developed in recent years whereby allowances and overtime earned in November – which should be paid in December – are held over until the new year.
A spokesperson for the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) pointed to recent media reports about the additional funding being sought by the Department of Justice to cover wages due to members before the end of the year.
In the AGSI’s view, this should include people’s unsocial hours payments, which are worked in November and should therefore be paid in December.
They said the association “sincerely hopes” that the extra funding sought includes the provision for paying those allowances.
This delay will mean that any overtime earned, or allowances due to be paid for the month of November will not be received until January. It is understood that this was previously due time constraints for processing the the pay cheques in the end of year administration but one source said this year the ability to process the payments is there, but not the money.
Workers on the lower end of the pay scale
“The minister can pay for uniforms, cars, petrol – every other bill except this pay that garda families need most at this time of year,” one garda source told TheJournal.ie. “Those gardaí who are struggling to pay their mortgages will now find the direct debit will bounce on the week that it’s due to be paid.”
Another source commented that despite changes to rosters and the Haddington Road Agreement being adhered to “once again we are left in a position where those affected the most are workers on the lower end of the pay scale who rely on the overtime and allowances to get through Christmas”.
A spokesperson for the Garda Representative Association said all issues of late payments have been raised with garda management. They said that the association “continues to monitor progress and represent our members’ pay and conditions of employment”.
“This matter is receiving ongoing attention,” they added.
Long established practice
In response to a query form this website, the Department of Justice described it as a “long established practice” for these payments to be claimed at the end of a four week period and to be paid “as soon as possible thereafter”.
Due to end of year financial and administrative procedures, the allowances and overtime claimed in December have always been paid, and will continue to be paid, in the following January.
The department said the issue was “neither raised nor addressed in the discussions leading to the Haddington Road Agreement”.
Originally published 6.15am
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The article speaks for the direct professional competence and experience of the author.
As a contrast, our newly appointed Taoiseach has frequently disputed the correlation between poverty and ill health and premature mortality. Despite the fact that Veradker is a qualified medical practitioner, his political ideology that poverty is not a concern of government, blinds him to the hugely detrimental impact of poverty on human health.
Diets in poorer area plays a bugger role in life expectancy….
@Paul: When we see that obesity if a factor in First World “poverty” we should wake up and see that PC fake analyse is keeping the poor, poor. Certain political parties need to keep a pool of poor people as voters to get themselves elected and these are the real enemies of the poor.
The private practice model of GP healthcare is not financially viable in poorer areas. Timely Access to GPs is more restricted in the case of poorer people than for those who are more comfortably off.
@Jenny mcCarty: You can qualify that statement, I assuming.
@Tony Daly: quiet the opposite. Workers have to arrange time off work to visit GP and pay 50 to 65€ as they don’t have medical cards.
@Geraoid O’Helidhe: Great, all workers should have them and the public housing close to jobs if required.
Well done for highlighting health inequalities. Not new but larger ignored in ireland.
See the Black Report – very old doc now
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/XXMM-JMQU-2A7Y-HX1E?journalCode=joha
Also this affects everyone to some degree as there is a social gradient.
It’s all about choices….
@Gavin Huban: To an extent it is but you have less choices to make or certain choices have a higher cost as a proportion of your income. To eat healthier might be very difficult to afford or even get depending on where you live.
Slightly off topic but one glaring indictment of our health service is that even for private patients, waiting times are only “a matter of month”.
In this country we have now a new norm of having to wait months even privately except where you are a Minister or politician.
@Ger Healy: I completely agree. There is something to be said for a competitive American model of medicine where doctors decide to help people, make money because of their qualifications and expertise, and not be grossly overworked. When I have had to see a specialist, after waiting a very long time for the appointment, I wonder about the waiting list of people behind me and how that must affect the health of the doctor being put under so much pressure day in and day out.
@Ger Healy: The narrative that people are definitely corrupt if they are politicians is wrong and threatens democracy and is similar to the widely held belief that all media are liars.
Put it this way…………………….have you ever seen a bookie riding a bicycle?Go figure!
@Jenny mcCarty: Have you ever asked yourself why you need these gross simplifications, Jenny? I pay a mortgage and work, but I acknowledge this as good fortune, as well as the work ethic and attitude I was lucky enough to inherit – in the long run I’m far better off in all respects. Stop whining – you may need to see the world in such simple terms because you are frightened by its complex problems and just want it to go away. For you and all of us it will, eventually, and this will have been your life – is this the best you can do?
have your say