I move the motion standing in my name:—
"That the Gárda Síochána Allowances Order be not approved by the Dáil."
I should like to make it clear that I am not referring to the Order mentioned by the Minister some days ago— the Gárda Síochána Disciplinary Order. I am referring to the Order fixing the allowances of the Gárda. In my experience in the past I have found that very often allowances were more important than pay, and that by ingenuity, particularly if you had an ingenious subordinate clerk, you could draw as much in allowance as in pay. I want to take exception to this Order on two grounds. The first is that of rent allowance. This Order fixes the rate of rent allowance; it fixes the scale and it fixes the individuals who are entitled to draw rent allowance. I take exception both to the scale and to the number who may conceivably be entitled to draw that rent allowance.
The Order mentioned during the discussion of the Estimates last week points out that a rent allowance shall be paid at the following rates to every member of the force for whom, or, if married, for whose family, suitable official quarters are not available:— Sergeants and guards from £13 a year in country districts—5/- a week—to £30 a year in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. Those amounts will be paid as approved by the Minister. I had occasion to compare that scale with a certain scale across the water, the scale of the London Metropolitan Police. They are a very efficient body, a highly-paid body; they are regarded as the aristocracy of the police force in Great Britain. London is not a cheap city to live in; it may not be quite as expensive as Dublin, but I think it is more expensive than Limerick or Waterford. Rents are high; in fact, they are so high that civil servants stationed in London get an increased allowance to cover the cost of living there.
Our scale for Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford for sergeants and guards is 30/- a week. In the London Metropolitan Police a sergeant gets 18/- a week and a constable 15/6. Those are the figures given by the British Home Secretary in the middle of April this year. That scale is very substantially lower than our own. In the case of constables as against our Gárda it is virtually half, and I suggest to the Minister that our scale can bear some revision. I have no doubt it is a scale he has inherited, as far as Dublin is concerned, from the Dublin Metropolitan Police, and it may not be possible to make an alteration in the case of persons already enjoying that scale, though allowances are more akin to the cost-of-living bonus than pay, and they are subject to revision from time to time. If it is inexpedient to do so in regard to persons in the service, the new scale ought certainly be applied to fresh entrants.
I will turn from the scale to the people who are drawing it. The quotation I read from the Order mentions that rent allowance shall be paid to every member of the force.