Mr. John Redmond:

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, AGSI, was established under SI 1357 of 1978, the Garda Síochána (Associations) Regulations 1978, to represent the interests of members of An Garda Síochána holding the ranks of sergeant, station sergeant and inspector in the areas of welfare, pay and conditions of service in An Garda Síochána. The association represents 2,007 members of sergeant and inspector ranks.

AGSI welcomes the opportunity to address the committee today and hopes the issues surrounding allowances in An Garda Síochána which may be raised by the committee can be discussed and explained by this association.

AGSI is anxious to dispel the myths surrounding the payment of allowances to members of An Garda Síochána, including ambiguity surrounding the amounts of payments made, taxation liability, the numbers to which the payments refer and the widespread belief that all members of An Garda Síochána get all allowances.

The Croke Park agreement is working. It has saved approximately €1.5 billion in costs to date. As the committee will be aware, it guarantees no further wage cuts in return for industrial peace and a far-reaching aggressive agenda for change across the public sector. An Garda Síochána has progressively pursued these changes. Moreover our members have delivered what was required to date and this has been publicly acknowledged by Garda Commissioners, Mr. P. J. Fitzpatrick, chair of the Garda implementation body, and the Ministers, Deputies Howlin and Shatter.

I would like to remind the committee that we were subject to a wage cut, universal social charge, increased PRSI, increased insurance levies and a pension-related levy, all of which resulted in a reduction of over 20% in pay for our members. Coupled with this, a 6% increase granted under Towards 2016 was withdrawn and, of course, will not be paid now.

One significant change under the Croke Park agreement to An Garda Síochána comes in the form of working patterns of members. Since changes have come into effect, officers now work a ten-hour day with a more relevant supply-demand ratio. The resulting availability of more members on the streets has been commented on by the public.

The Central Statistics Office, in a 2011 report, cites figures which show that public sector pay has fallen since 2008, while private sector pay has increased, and the computations exclude the public sector pension levy. In addition, working time has increased across the public sector by an average of 5%, while in most private sector employment it has decreased. An Garda Síochána members still work on average a 40 hour week. Employee numbers have reduced by 10% since 2008 with further reductions to come. In An Garda Síochána, the numbers are expected to be at a maximum of 13,000 by the end of 2013. That is a significant reduction from current figures of approximately 13,350 and well down on our peak numbers a short couple of years ago.

Considering pay across the public sector, 60% of employees earn under €55,000, with 25% earning less than €35,000. More reductions in pay through allowance reduction or elimination, at a time when costs are rising in utilities, bank charges and mortgage rates, merely constrict further the spending ability of, and increase financial pressures on, moderate income earners.

Allowances form a significant part of the core pay in An Garda Síochána. This was borne out in two Government commissions - under Judge Conroy and Professor Louden Ryan - two Government benchmarking reports and the conciliation and arbitration scheme for An Garda Síochána. It should be remembered that despite reports of huge increases under benchmarking, members of the AGSI were awarded a 5% increase while senior civil and public servants were awarded 16% increases.

The report on remuneration and pay in An Garda Síochána, known as the Conroy report, was presented to the Minister for Justice in January 1970. The Minister's commission, under Judge Conroy, was established in September 1968 to "examine, report and make recommendations on the remuneration and conditions of service" in An Garda Síochána. In chapter two of that report, Judge Conroy makes reference to the type of person burdened with being a policeman, and the benefits to Government of his role, at page five, when he states that a Garda's powers and duties are with him whether he is in or out of uniform and whether on or off duty, and he is responsible for any error of judgment in exercising these powers and is answerable for any such error.

Some 43 years later, this remains the case. Members of sergeant and inspector ranks are tasked with responsibilities that no other individual in the civil or public service must bear. Solely, we can deprive a person of his or her liberty; make life-changing decisions in split seconds; expose ourselves to prosecution-investigation by carrying out our statutory role; have our decisions scrutinised by an outside agency in the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission or internally through Garda discipline regulations; be suspended without pay or at best with 90% of basic pay; be left without professional legal assistance, apart from the AGSI scheme; and, ultimately, be open to losing one's job for relatively minor infringements of the regulations. Sadly, many of our members have lost their lives through the carrying out of their policing duties and many more are injured through assault each year. An Garda Síochána is unique in this regard.

This association has yet to see any other public servant targeted in the same way for the performance of his or her duties as an officeholder. Most mistakes in other agencies are referred to as "systems failures" and often the result is that an undertaking is given that procedures have been put in place to ensure the same thing cannot happen again.

It has been the practice that police in Ireland and the United Kingdom were paid a rent allowance if they could not be supplied with free accommodation. This practice was established before the Desborough commission reported to the Government of the United Kingdom in July 1919.

In Ireland, there is a similar historical aspect to rent allowance and other allowances in the Garda organisation. I have a written submission, which I will leave with the committee, which deals with a selection of allowances which are targeted for elimination or restructuring within the Garda organisation. I will conclude at that. I thank the Chairman and members of the Committee.