Mr. P. J. Stone:

One must be careful when one is referring to allowances paid because gardaí work unsocial hours. Bringing these allowances into core pay could have the effect of increasing pay levels throughout the Garda Síochána and gardaí would be paid for not having to work unsocial hours. The Commissioner must examine this issue in the sense that one must be able to put gardaí out to work tonight from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. If everyone was on the same level of pay, one might not have the same warmth for such a tour of duty. That is probably one of the principal reasons, no more than in any other occupation, a shift allowance is paid. It compensates for the terrible hours worked outside the norm. It is not as easy to subsume them into pay as one might imagine at the outset.