Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. In respect of comparisons across the public sector, we earn €92,000 as Deputies, so if one takes it on that simple calculation, €62,000 is a good wage. It would not strike me as excessive and I do not know if I am alone in remembering the saga around the introduction of annualised hours. I remember there was huge and legitimate concern about endemic overtime and the kinds of practice it encouraged within the service. I acknowledge that all of the stakeholders stepped up to the plate and signed off on an agreement which unquestionably returned big savings for the State and, hopefully, a return in respect of quality of working life for individual officers within the service.

I calculated that a 24-7 operation works out as almost 9,000 hours per annum. If one calculates that across each place of detention, one is looking at a huge number of woman or man hours dedicated within the system. Looking at the list of allowances, I can see that the Department has managed to consolidate the payments system to deal with the issue of overtime and to introduce the flexibility required by the system. However, running in parallel with it is this oddity which extends even to the naming of different allowances. I understand how that does not sit all that comfortably in the minds of the public. The public could ask why these additional payments are being made to officers and so on. The challenge is to consolidate it even more and recognise those elements that are core pay as such. It is as much a presentational point as one concerning pounds, shillings and pence.

I note from looking at the list that the service does not have some of the more exotic allowances that some other sectors have, although I am curious to learn who the laundress is. There is one recipient of the laundress allowance, which is €8.