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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 22 Jul 1975

Vol. 284 No. 1

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Garda Clerks' Pay.

51.

asked the Minister for Justice if he will grant the same rate of pay to garda clerks who have to take special qualifying examinations in typing and garda regulations as to their uniformed colleagues of the same rank.

In answer to a question on 18th June regarding the claims of Garda clerks I stated that as the proceedings of the Garda Conciliation Council were confidential it was not open to me to make a public statement relating to claims which were before the council. Matters relating to this issue have, however, since been published in the Garda Review and, indeed, it may be that these have given rise to the present question. I, therefore, feel that it is incumbent on me at this stage to make a statement to clarify the issues that are involved as there appear to be some misunderstandings.

Contrary to what the question implies, garda clerks have, in fact, the same rate of pay as uniformed members of the force of the same rank. Not only that, but a number of clerks—mainly those employed as district or divisional clerks—are paid an additional allowance. What has given rise to the complaints from garda clerks is the fact that most of their uniformed colleagues are, in recent years, earning overtime and, nowadays, are also paid extra for "unsocial" hours worked at weekends and on public holidays even where these do not constitute overtime. In contrast, a number of garda clerks have little or no occasion to earn overtime or to work "unsocial" hours.

There is no easy or ready solution to this problem, the essential features of which are not peculiar to the Garda Síochána. The inherent difficulties in the situation are, perhaps, best exemplified by the nature of the proposal recently made to solve it by the representative body for guards. Normally, I would not feel free to refer publicly to a proposal from a representative body but the gist of this particular proposal has already been publicly referred to in the June issue of the Garda Review. The proposal is that, where clerks are engaged on ordinary office duties on a Monday to Friday basis, their working week should be rearranged so that, instead of coming in to work on, say, a Wednesday or Thursday, they should take a day off during the week and, instead, work at the weekend so as to be paid at weekend rates.

This might solve the problem from the point of view of the members concerned or their representative body but, as the Minister responsible for asking Dáil Éireann to vote moneys for the running of the Garda Síochána, I do not think I need labour the point that the rearrangement of the working week for no purpose other than to qualify for additional weekend pay rates would, quite simply, be an improper use of taxpayers' money and could not be contemplated.

Another proposal that was made in an effort to solve the problem— although not, I may say, by the representative body for guards who represent the majority of the clerks—was that a new fixed allowance of £X per week should be paid to all clerks. Even if this proposal had any intrinsic merit, it could not be accepted and, indeed, would not provide a solution to this problem. For instance, it would in effect be, and be seen to be, no more than a device to compensate for lack of opportunity to earn overtime. If members were given an allowance to compensate them for lack of overtime earnings, those members actually doing overtime could argue that, in effect, they were getting no benefit from it. Thus, such an allowance would represent an increase in the basic pay of gardaí doing clerical work and would almost inevitably give rise to claims for corresponding increases for gardaí engaged on normal outdoor police duties—leading to a classic "leap-frogging" situation. It would also run completely counter to the recommendations of the Conroy Commission which were to the effect that, as far as possible, Garda clerks should be phased out and replaced by civilian employees and no members assigned to clerical work in future should get a clerical allowance.

All of this is not to say that I do not fully accept that there is a genuine problem inherent in the present situation. I am well aware that the problem is real and that we must continue to try to find a solution for it that will work in practice and that will be fair to all concerned.

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