Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The regulations I mentioned - the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (Police Service of Northern Ireland Appointments) Regulations and the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (Section 52) Regulations - were not made until 2012. They have not been in place for a lengthy period of time. They allow members of the PSNI to apply for promotions into the Garda. We will have to wait and see how that works.

The issue in this regard is that individual gardaí cannot be compelled to make applications to transfer into the PSNI, and vice versa. People choose their careers and have career paths. In the current financial climate, I do not have the funding to provide additional financial incentives for people to transfer from the Garda to the PSNI. As Minister for Justice and Equality, I have to try to ensure we have as many members in our police force as possible. I am very happy to encourage the implementation of the intent of what was put in place. I am happy to discuss it with Minister Ford. I do not envisage that funding will be available to me to incentivise members of the Garda to apply for posts in the PSNI.

The pension issue is not quite as complicated as it sounds. If someone transfers from one force to the other, he or she retains the benefit of all the pension contributions he or she made in the force of which he or she was a member. He or she will then start making additional pension contributions in the new force. Obviously, an entitlement to certain pension payments would accumulate arising from that. I have no doubt we will return to this issue on another occasion.