Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My thanks to the Minister for her opening statement. One thing I mentioned to the Minister privately was the issue of administrative pay for gardaí, especially of those out from Templemore at the moment. They would have been expected to go through their training programme over a certain period and then go to Garda stations throughout the country. They were all out early last spring as it happened.

Several people from different parts of the country have contacted me. They have been a long time out but are only getting the training support payment. This is a small payment they get as if they were in Templemore. They are basically unable to survive on that. I wrote to the Commissioner with regard to this issue but I have not received a reply yet. This issue needs to be dealt with. These trainee gardaí provide a vital service. It would be most unfortunate if their experience was that they were undervalued in any way. I do not believe that is the intention of the Minister or the Commissioner or anyone involved, but there seems to be a loophole whereby they are not being properly remunerated for the hands-on work they are doing. That needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. If possible, payment should be backdated to an appropriate time when they would have been starting that kind of work.

I will comment on the Garda Vote in general. The provision of additional vehicles has been one of the benefits we have seen flow from Covid-19 - although there have been few of these. Anyway, certainly from speaking to gardaí near me I have learned one of the big issues they had was the problem with vehicles and that there were never enough of them. Often calls would come into Garda stations and they could not physically go out to answer the calls because no vehicle was available. The additional vehicles will be welcome. This is one of the things that should have happened a long time ago. I will leave it at that. I have some other issues I will talk to the Minister about when it comes to the courts and the other services.