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Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of a police force getting involved in political debate, surely I wasn't the only one who saw the deep irony of the Gardai (upholders of the law) accusing the Government and "economic institutions" of being corrupt.
Surely if anyone was in a position to prevent corruption the police force would be near the top?:confused: Leaving aside that the GRA seem to have conveniently forgotten their own recent history of corruption.
maybe im asking a very stupid question here but when was the GRA guilty of corruption?
The GRA itself wasn't, but it has strongly defended Gardai members who have been sanctioned or criticised at the Morris Tribunal and a number of other cases. It also sought to narrow the scope of the Morris Tribunal and rejected many of its findings despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary (e.g. the case involving Sgt. John White).Quote:
Originally Posted by hula4
fair point i suppose although that doesnt show how all Garda members behave, also i must state that a lot of Gardai feel seriously let down by the behaviour of the GRA and O'Toole yesterday. It would be fair to say that the majority of AGS have no time for Dermot Ahern as Minister for Justice but would have rather seen him ask some tricky questions and made to squirm a bit as opposed to giving him the easy way out so to speak.
I think the GRA have made an absolute balls of themselves over the past few days. The stuff about the part-time jobs etc. was ludicrous- Gardai are very well paid. I don't begrudge them decent conditions for a second but they seem to be totally out of touch with the real world. Just look at some of the crazy allowances etc. they have been entitled to- do they think people have forgotten that?
And they should not be getting involved in politics. Whether what they say is right or wrong, the police force should be apolitical.
Plus there is the stuff mentioned above- the Gardai are another Irish institution that don't believe in any accountability once you're in the club.
How much is a Garda paid? My wife reckoned they get paid about the same as a primary school teacher, and that's feck all; plus of course the hours are worse.
I think this is the crux of the issue. Their basic pay historically has formed a fairly low percentage of their take home earnings, with overtime and the various allowances bolstering their pay hugely.Quote:
Originally Posted by dahamsta
With overtime being hugely reduced and the various allowances being curbed (some of which are simply ridiculous, e.g. the infamous allowance for desk-based staff who aren't able to avail of other allowances...), take home pay has fallen hugely. I presume this was viewed as core income by Gardai and they bought houses, cars etc. on the back of their total earnings, never assuming this would disappear.
I have some sympathy, but I would agree the GRA have handled this terribly. I hate to agree with Dermot Ahern, but the corruption point simply demeans rank and file gardai. Its a childish argument, but what should you expect from a Donegal guard..... (as the outgoing GRA Chairman is)
http://www.gra.cc/pay__scales_budget_2010.shtml
Not massive in fairness.
[QUOTE=dahamsta;1352160]How much is a Garda paid? My wife reckoned they get paid about the same as a primary school teacher, and that's feck all; plus of course the hours are worse.[/QU
my take home pay is €292 per week for 3 weeks of the month and the final pay cheque includes Sundays, night allowance and any overtime and on average thats about €600, i have a mortgage of €1100 per month plus the obvious other day to day expenses that everyone has, so no i wouldnt say we are well paid, about without sounding like a martyr because i do appreciate i am lucky to have a job but i field phone calls about work at all hours of the day and night, i get people calling to the house asking me to sign passport forms, to get them off all sorts of traffic tickets, i get asked legal advice on all sorts of civil matters and so on, but all a lot of people see is the b**tard in the blue, never the friendly neighbour who helps out where he can.
Could i do the same to a carpenter, electrician, accountant etc who lived next door to me?
On the other hand, the pension entitlements are stupendous: http://www.independent.ie/national-n...s-1966954.html
That's what I like to see in CA, data!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dahamsta
All the overtime the do, they only seem to come out once there is the chance of doing some overtime.
Jesus anyone that has seen a LOI match recently will see all the sterling work they do..................:kissed:. The Linfield - Pats game was a bit of a joke
Have you got data to back that up though bennocelt? How much overtime are they actually getting this year? How does that compare to last year?
I'm loving the google ad for Lake garda. :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by dahamsta
nah, unless you want the dog in the street variety - which I know you love!
A FF Minister getting upset about his party being called corrupt is surely like the Pope getting upset at the Church being called Catholic. The man to tackle organised crime, who has implicitly criticised bank staff for not following procedures when members of their family are being held hostage, bottles it about facing a convention over a few words in a proposed speech. Give me feckin strength!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
Firstly, the independent isn't exactly "independant" when it comes to the public sector. Pat Kenny has tied his colours to an anti public sector mast. I'd like to see the calculations, because every example I've seen is skewed to make it look as outlandish as possible when it comes to public sector pensions.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
Several cops I know get paid very little overtime anymore. They get leave in lieu, which they have no hope of being allowed to take, and can't kick up about it as they want to get promoted at some point. And it is an issue for the reasons outlined above with regard to banks being allowed to count overtime and allowances for mortgages. I guess that comes back to politics too, since that was the regime FF oversaw.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bennocelt
I generally wouldn't be a massive fan of the gardai or the GRA, some of the examples quoted above being reasons. But the spate with Ahern is all about him trying to look hard when bottling it about a bad reception. If you want to see a police force politicised, look at the timings of some of the banking raids and how that timing suited the Government. Or is that "different"?