Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a matter of national significance and importance. It has a pensions component as well a national security component. I refer to the impending retirement of the deputy Garda commissioner for policing and security, who will most likely retire in March or April next year. Unfortunately, not a single serving member of An Garda Síochána has applied for promotion to replace her because if they do, they will get hammered from a pensions point of view. Revenue will nail them and there is no financial incentive to apply for this promotion. On the contrary, there is a financial disincentive to apply.

I agree with the standard fund threshold, SFT, which is important. It was introduced in 2014 for banker's pay. Unfortunately, this one-size-fits-all pension threshold has had unintended consequences and it disproportionately affecting An Garda Síochána in particular because of its fast-accrual pensions. When people are in the senior echelons of An Garda Síochána and at the peak of their powers, they do not apply for high office because they are financially disincentivised from doing so. Some of these gardaí, if they apply for this job, will be hit with up to €200,000 of a tax bill on the day they retire. A massive tax bill is, therefore, pending if they apply for this job and get it, and that is the reason not a single one of them has done so.

It is a big issue from a workforce planning point of view but perhaps even more important from a the national security point of view. As the Tánaiste will be aware, An Garda Síochána is unique. It has a policing function as well a national intelligence function. It is important that the person who applies for or is given this job is an Irish citizen, just like an Irish diplomat must be an Irish citizen. Unfortunately, there have been only a small number of applicants and they are all from outside this jurisdiction. That is not the way to do business because if you are applying for the position of head of Irish intelligence, the assumption is that you have worked in the intelligence services and apparatus of other countries, and that would give other countries a strategic advantage over this jurisdiction. That is not the way to do business.

Does the Tánaiste accept that there is a problem and an anomaly here? Does he accept that it is something that should be fixed? How does he propose to address it in the short to medium term?

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