I would like to welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Willie O'Dea, to the House and thank him for taking my motion on the Adjournment. I am asking the Minister for Justice, the Minister of State and the Government to treat fairly gardaí who are retiring. At present they are being denied their full pension rights. I believe the Government must include all pay and allowances in calculating the pensions of retired members of the Garda. It is a feature of superannuation in the Civil Service and in other public sector organisations that pay and allowances are reckonable for pensionable computations. Gardaí are exceptional in that allowances in the nature of pay earned by them are not pensionable. Gardaí receive these allowances regularly as basic pay, they are part of their normal living expenses and I believe it is unfair to omit them from the calculation of their pension. The reduction in income which gardaí experience when they retire and receive their pension causes hardship. They receive much less than if they were retiring from other areas of the public service. In fact, other sections of the public service are entitled to 50 per cent of their pay as pension but gardaí obtain only 40 per cent of their pay as pension.
Gardaí, nurses, prison officers and fire brigade personnel all receive special allowances calculated by an identical formula in respect of duty at weekends, at night and during public holidays. These allowances are pensionable in the areas of all groups except the Garda. Members of the Garda are treated unfairly and, indeed, are discriminated against because the allowances in question are not computed when pension is calculated.
The history of this goes back to 1978 when the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors lodged a claim and over a period of years various discussions took place between the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice and between the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and the GRA. During these discussions the official side stated that they had been authorised by the Minister for the Public Service to make an offer on the claim which constituted the granting of 15 different allowances, but excluded were 12 allowances, including subsistence allowance, overtime allowance and rent allowance. It was stated that the guiding principle was that the allowance should be those in the nature of pay only. The staff side — the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and the Garda Representative Association — did not accept the offer on the basis that it did not provide for averaging over the entire force, and that, in particular, rent allowances were not included for computing pension. The official side saw rent allowances as a disbursement allowance rather than in the nature of pay and, as such, did not concede.
In relation to allowances being paid to individuals, the official side stated they could not entertain the concept whereby a member not drawing a particular allowance would benefit pensionwise in respect of same. Following regional meetings and indepth consideration by the conciliation council in 1980, it was agreed that a mediator from the Labour Court would be brought in to mediate in the case. Following the findings of the Conciliation and Arbitration Board at the time, further discussions took place to determine arrangements in regard to pension contributions in respect of allowances declared reckonable for the purpose of the Superannuation Act. A major fallout of the findings was that members of the Garda who retired prior to 1 October 1982 had never had rent allowance taken into account for the purpose of calculating their pensions. It has been a major point of bitterness for Garda pensioners and it has always been seen by them as unfair and inadequate.
Gardaí working a regular shift also feel very unfairly treated. Shift work involved tours between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m.; between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m.; and between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., encompassing Saturdays, Sundays, bank holidays and night duty. They receive allowances in respect of working these unsocial hours, they pay PRSI and PAYE on these allowances, yet they are not considered reckonable for pension purposes.
Members of the Garda feel very aggrieved, especially on two fronts. They see their colleagues, who basically work Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with bank holidays off, having to perform no night duty and in receipt of allowances which are pensionable. This applies to instructors, radio technicians, clerical staff and so on. The sense of grievance and unfairness has increased over time as these allowances have increased in value.
The sense of unfairness is also experienced on a broader front. Prison service personnel and fire brigade personnel have unsocial allowances taken into acccount for computing their pensions. Garda on the ground, who face gunmen, burglars, terrorists and violence at all hours of the day and night, 365 days of the year, cannot accept that at the end of the day they are worth less in terms of gratuity and pensions than their colleagues whom they deem to be in much less vulnerable and hazardous conditions. The members would further argue that things have changed fundamentally since the arbitration findings in 1982. We now have the Criminal Justice Act covering treatment of persons in custody and the Garda Complaint Act. The legislation is the primary concern of the Gardaí on the ground, requiring an increased expertise on their part as well as providing for a far greater degree of indepth examination of each individual garda's action.
A final aspect of this problem is that the Ryan committee of inquiry gave superintendents and chief superintendents a substantial increase in pay to compensate for not qualifying for unsocial hours payments. This pay increase was reflected in subsequent pensions and gratuities. In the interests of fairness and justice, steps should be taken to rectify this situation at an early date. Surely, if the Minister for Finance could accommodate claims in 1982 the present Minister can give sympathetic and positive consideration to the matter at this stage.
The Minister might claim that there would be repercussive effects. There are three groups who work around the clock and who are in receipt of a rent allowance and an allowance for unsocial hours, namely, the Garda, prison officers and fire brigade personnel. Fire brigade personnel have both rent allowances and unsocial hours allowances taken into account for gratuity and pension services. Prison officers' unsocial hours payments are pensionable but not their rent allowances. The Garda rent allowances are pensionable but not unsocial hours allowances. The repercussive claims arising from the concession of pensionability of unsocial hours allowances to gardaí would entail concession of pensionability of rent allowance to prison officers.
Currently there are just over 2,000 prison officers. On the basis of 100 retiring annually, the annual cost per 100 would be £300,000 in gratuities and £75,000 in pension costs. I expect huge pressure on this matter, especially since many of the gardaí spent 30 years working unsocial hours for which they received no compensation.
We boast rightly — and the Minister has said so — that we have one of the best police forces in the world. They are a necessary arm of the institutions of the State and I ask the Minister, and the Government, to treat them fairly in this respect.
