Chaos as top garda wrongly claims overtime axed for rest of year
JUSTICE Minister Charlie Flanagan is “at a loss to comprehend” how it was claimed by a senior garda that there is no money to pay for overtime in the run up to Christmas.
Officials from the Department of Justice have been in contact with Garda Headquarters seeking clarification on a notice that was sent out to chief superintendents in the Dublin Metropolitan Region.
The directive issued by Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy to chief superintendents on Tuesday gave the impression overtime was being cancelled until the end of the year, ex- cept in the case of two key operations. It subsequently transpired overtime was only being cancelled until Sunday.
But in the meantime, rankand-file gardaí were left in a state of “complete shock” and led to claims burglaries and gang crime were likely to rise.
The exact reason for the mix-up is unclear, but sources said it was likely down to a misunderstanding when the Assistant Commissioner was informed of the decision by Garda Headquarters.
Due to the way rosters fall, the Garda’s 2017 financial year ends this Sunday and not December 31. Overtime from Monday on will come from the force’s 2018 budget.
It is understood the country’s five other regional commissioners conveyed to their chief superintendents that the cessation was only until Sunday.
The embarrassing episode led to widespread concerns being expressed within the force.
The matter was eventually cleared up yesterday by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and via a subsequent statement issued by the Garda press office.
But it has served to highlight the fact the force is struggling to operate inside its budget as it battles to keep a lid on organised crime feuds in the capital.
An Garda Síochána was allocated €88.5m for overtime operations this year, but sources revealed it had already exceed-
ed this budget by around 50pc.
An additional allocation of €44m from the Government, in the form of a supplementary estimate, will be considered for approval by the Oireachtas Justice Committee today.
The Irish Independent understands the decision to temporarily halt overtime until the end of the week stemmed from a realisation that even with the supplementary estimate, the force would have exceeded its budget unless this week’s overtime was cancelled.
Had the revised budget been exceeded management would likely have faced difficult questions from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Varadkar insisted funding for Garda overtime in the run up to Christmas was never in question. He said any funding for overtime in December would be taken out of the 2018 budget as wages are not paid until the new year. “I would have hoped Garda management would have been aware of that,” he said.
A large portion of the Garda overtime budget is swallowed up by “parade time”, where members turn up 15 minutes before their shift to be briefed on their duties. The practice was discontinued in the 1980s but was resumed this year following pay negotiations between the Government and gardaí.
However, no specific provisions were made to cover the huge cost of paying for an additional quarter of hour per shift, so the payments came from the overtime budget.
One senior garda officer said crime investigation and court duties were traditionally the two “big items” when calculating overtime spending. But this year parade time was the second biggest item.