Garda inspector earned €123,461 last year

Some gardaí are more than doubling their annual salary in overtime and special allowances, new figures obtained by The Irish Times reveal.

An inspector serving in Dublin was last year the highest paid member of the force of inspector, sergeant and garda rank, with gross earnings of €123,461.

This included €50,908 in basic salary, €53,141 in overtime and €19,213 in allowances. The top 10 highest earners grossed more than €1 million last year in salaries, overtime and allowances.

One Dublin-based garda earning a salary of €39,342 increased his gross income last year to €107,703 when allowances and overtime were taken into account.

The garda earned €49,474 in overtime and €18,608 in allowances. He was the highest paid member of garda rank.

One other member of garda rank also saw his earnings pass the €100,000 mark. He earned €104,066, with €39,342 in salary, €46,116 in overtime and €18,608 in allowances. All the gardaí, sergeants and inspectors in the top 20 list of earners made over €90,000 last year. Members of the force are eligible for a variety of allowances relating to the type of duties they perform. For example, members working nights are given a special allowance, and the same applied to those working weekends.

Gardaí are also paid clothing allowances, detectives get a special allowance and junior liaison officers also get a special payment. Members are also entitled to a rent allowance.

Details released under the Freedom of Information Act of members of the force of garda, sergeant and inspector rank reveal that the top 20 list is dominated by gardaí.

There is just one inspector within the top earnings figures, along with six sergeants.

All of the top 20 officers are based in Dublin.

Much of the overtime paid to gardaí is for the policing of special events such as sports fixtures and other occasions where large crowds are expected, or where there is a risk of public disturbances.

Many members of the force earning significant levels of overtime work at stations in areas where a number of murders or other serious crimes have taken place. In the days and weeks after such crimes, members of the force, particularly detectives, are required to work long hours of overtime.

Last year's €81.4 million Garda overtime bill included the major security operations in Dublin and Shannon during the EU-US summit and the ceremonies to mark the expansion by 10 states of the EU. Both operations took place in May.

Both events resulted in gardaí staging two of the biggest security operations ever seen in the State. On May Day last year, when a ceremony at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park marked the expansion by 10 states of the EU, some 5,000 gardaí were drafted into the city.

While it has traditionally been believed that gardaí appointed as drivers to Ministers are among the highest earners of overtime within the force, this is not the case.

Ministerial drivers work on a "week on, week off" basis. Their week off, and a 40 per cent pay rise which applies while they are in the ministerial drivers' pool, compensates them for long hours worked while on duty.