The Garda Commissioner and Department of Justice officials have clashed with high-level senior officers over the force’s overtime budget.
Experienced gardai at the forefront of the day-to-day fight against crime told Commissioner Drew Harris and the Department civil servants that this year’s allocation is “totally insufficient”.
Overtime has been slashed from €130million in 2018 to just €95million this year.
The clash came at a recent meeting of senior gardai which was chaired by the Commissioner, Dublin Live has learned.
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One source said: “There simply is not enough overtime there to run the force in an efficient manner.
“The department always make a big issue of overtime, but it accounts for just a fraction of the overall garda budget.
“We’re perplexed that overtime has become such a focal point for the Justice Department.
“The overtime budget figures look massively distorted - the fact is that 30% relates to a pay rise given to gardai by the Workplace Commission – and this should be added to payroll and not come out of the overtime budget.
“That’s a massive drain and is considered non-discretionary overtime.
“And gardai attending court eats up another 30% of the OT budget."
The huge drain leaves little overtime left over to fight major crises like the Drogheda feud that has seen shootings and petrol bombing plague the town in recent months.
Plus the recent spate of ATM robberies have stretched resources in certain areas.
The source added: "The only good news on the Drogheda front is the 25 new officers being drafted into the town. But the overtime problem still remains."
Now the commissioner has taken on board his senior team’s serious concerns and has set up a working group to report to the department on the issue.
News of the high-level meeting comes after the Garda Representative Association (GRA) rejected Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan’s claim that the force is adequately resourced.
The GRA called for an increase in the €1.7 billion garda budget and more equipment and training.
Rank and file officers said they don’t have enough resources to do their job properly.
One GRA National Executive member, Garda Damien McCarthy, fumed at the association’s conference in Killarney, Co Kerry, this week that the minister’s failure to address problems with the garda budget and resources was ‘negligent’.
And he slammed the Commissioner’s decision to take on 200 less recruits this year as ‘mind boggling’.
But the minister defended the decision to reduce the intake from 800 to 600.
