Mr. P. J. Stone:

Many allowances have been carried over. The Deputy raised a point about rent. To be accurate, the rent allowance was applied to the wages of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1883. The Irish State has mirrored many of the allowances payable to our British counterparts. Some of the allowances at issue in this discussion have been subsumed into the pay of English and PSNI constables. Strangely, some years ago the London Metropolitan Police Service abolished the rent allowance for new entrants, but has since reintroduced it. If memory serves, it amounts to approximately £6,580. Under any benchmarking exercise, we mirror 95% of other police forces exactly, with the exception of pay. This is particularly so in the PSNI's case, where new recruits early in their careers are better paid than gardaí, as is outlined in figures I have provided.