Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had a quick look at the allowances paid to gardaí and the civilian overtime allowance. Some five allowances account for a total of 86% of all allowance costs. Mr. Stone made reference to the boot allowance, but I am not including it. The rent allowance, the night duty allowance, the Saturday allowance, the Sunday allowance and the public holiday allowance combined appear to account for almost 86% of all allowance costs. This is a common thread throughout all the groups that have appeared before us. A small number of allowances account for a high concentration of allowance costs. Clearly, these are core pay. That is the point, although we are repeating ourselves somewhat. It is welcome that we have management and staff representatives present today and I hope this will continue to be the case. It seems to have evolved everywhere. There is a vast amount of allowances, but a small number of recipients for relatively small amounts of money. There is a need for dialogue to reorganise the allowances applied, a matter to which Mr. Stone made reference. The Commissioner made reference to making the Garda more fit for purpose as a modern police force. Will he be examining that aspect?