Mr. Martin Callinan:

Several points arise. We spoke about the uniqueness of the job done by An Garda Síochána. Within the range of allowances, we are discussing nuances that do not lend themselves to universal application. We have made this point already. One must be careful not to arrive at a situation where one over-subscribes one rank against another. We discussed the issue of inspectors and the fact that 36.7% of their gross wage was made up of allowances. If it was to be ordained in the morning that the cadre of allowances to which Deputy O'Donnell is referring should be subsumed into pay, one could easily arrive at a situation where one would have an inspector on a higher salary than an superintendent. One could see attendant difficulties in that case. The matter requires careful consideration, but I would not go beyond that.