Councillors criticise pay of new garda recruits

'SOMETHING IS WRONG’ Cllr Christy Hyland.

Anton McNulty

THE basic pay for newly trained gardaí was criticised at last week’s monthly meeting of Mayo County Council after it was revealed a couple can qualify for family income support.
The issue of poor garda pay was raised by Independent councillors Michael Kilcoyne and Christy Hyland who said that gardaí were putting themselves in the firing line and they should be paid more.
Cllr Hyland revealed that a newly trained garda coming out of Templemore has a gross annual wage of €24,400 and if the recruit is married, they can qualify for family income support.
The Westport-based councillor and former garda said he was told by a newly trained garda that he had to get a part-time job in order to support himself.
“I met one person who was delighted to join the force and always wanted it as a career. But he has to use his time off to get a part-time job. There is something wrong with that,” he said.
Cllr Hyland explained that people aged up to 32 years old are entitled to join An Garda SíochΡna and it was not inconceivable that there are new recruits who are availing of family income support. He said the issue was a matter not just for the gardaí but other public servants and was concerned by the way public servants were being supported by the state.
The issue of policing was raised in the chamber when Chief Superintendent Pat Diskin gave a presentation on the current state of policing in the county. He said crimes such as burglary were down in the county by six percent in the last year while aggravated burglaries were down by 40 percent; robbery was down by 60 percent and the possession of drugs was down by four percent from the previous year.

‘Firing line’
The issue of garda pay was by raised by Cllr Kilcoyne who said the pay of new gardaí was poor considering the line of work they are in.
“They put themselves in the firing line, the chances of us getting shot at work is fairly minimal, but we ask gardaí to go out and put their life on the line. Their basic pay is wrong,” he said.
Cllr Hyland also raised the issue of the lack of garda cars in the Westport district claiming that there is no garda car available in Louisburgh and the Newport car is now covering Achill. He said the cars were over ten years old and not fit for service and should be replaced.