Gardaí struggling to pay bills - AGSI

K-9

Bosco boy wrote: »

what do you do yourself for a living?

LOL you remind me of my Dad and my uncle.

Nobody has to tell you their job on this site, just because you have no problem doing so, doesn't mean others are comfortable doing that.

The 2008 figures are out of date and I believe OT isn't as freely available as before because of budget issues, plus there's an additional pension levy to the current one and the pay cut to take account of. Plus the extra tax increases everybody pays.

I can see why the bankruptcy threat is very severe for a guard, it's the same for me as an accountant, taken very seriously.

Still, times are tough for nearly everybody and I can't imagine people being happy with Guards working in areas like taxi driving where it's hard to earn a living as it is. People are struggling everywhere so I don't see why it's such an issue!

Minstrel27

Bosco boy wrote: »

what do you do yourself for a living?

What relevance does that have to do with this?

stovelid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8VGQTtENSs

mikemac

If you're constantly getting overtime you might adapt your lifestyle for it.

But overtime is being cut back a lot and some have to readjust

As said a few times in the thread there are a lot of gardai who are landlords and they might be in serious trouble with several proporties to manage.
With over 10,000 in the force, it's pretty certain there are a least a few in this situation.

If it falls apart and they go bankrupt, then they'll be removed and this might wreck their Garda pension too

mikom

Bosco boy wrote: »

what do you do yourself for a living?

Minstrel27 wrote: »

What relevance does that have to do with this?

Handy to know for point scoring is the usual reason.

hatz7

I don't believe that the Gardai are taking home less than 40K pa.

They have a list the length of my arm of extras that they can claim.

Bosco boy

I think other posters occupations are very relevant to the thread, I note the reluctance to answer the question, maybe they fear the level of their hyprocites to be exposed. If your going to attack one occupation at least have the balls to stand over your own and open it up to debate!

pragmatic1

feelingstressed wrote: »

If you're constantly getting overtime you might adapt your lifestyle for it.

But overtime is being cut back a lot and some have to readjust

As said a few times in the thread there are a lot of gardai who are landlords and they might be in serious trouble with several proporties to manage.
With over 10,000 in the force, it's pretty certain there are a least a few in this situation.

If it falls apart and they go bankrupt, then they'll be removed and this might wreck their Garda pension too

Thats life mate. If you dont plan for rainy days you might get in bother at some stage. The state cant be expected to hold everyones hand through life.

Logical Fallacy

Bosco boy wrote: »

what do you do yourself for a living?

What do you do yourself for a living?

Also, when 1% of the work force appears to be having fiscal issues then it's more of an indicator that those particular people have very poor money management skills than anything else, to imply otherwise would be a remarkable reach i think.

Lets look at it another way...99% of Gardai in Ireland can live just fine on their current pay levels.

Einhard

Bosco boy wrote: »

I think other posters occupations are very relevant to the thread, I note the reluctance to answer the question, maybe they fear the level of their hyprocites to be exposed. If your going to attack one occupation at least have the balls to stand over your own and open it up to debate!

I never attacked the gardai. Is disagreeing with the AGSI an attack these days?

snubbleste

Bosco boy wrote: »

I think other posters occupations are very relevant to the thread, I note the reluctance to answer the question, maybe they fear the level of their hyprocites to be exposed. If your going to attack one occupation at least have the balls to stand over your own and open it up to debate!

Maybe next year for once, put forward a motion at the AGSI conference or ask someone who is in a position to, not to issue press releases to the media about Garda pay in any way shape or form.

K-9

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

What do you do yourself for a living?

Also, when 1% of the work force appears to be having fiscal issues then it's more of an indicator that those particular people have very poor money management skills than anything else, to imply otherwise would be a remarkable reach i think.

Lets look at it another way...99% of Gardai in Ireland can live just fine on their current pay levels.

I don't think that's a fair interpretation of it either, 1% basically have nothing after standing orders are paid, nothing to live on, but of course we don't know what they are, could be a second house or high mortgage, 010 car etc, or it could be basic enough.

I'm sure more than 1% are just making ends meet or less, like the rest of us.

Logical Fallacy

Bosco boy wrote: »

I think other posters occupations are very relevant to the thread, I note the reluctance to answer the question, maybe they fear the level of their hyprocites to be exposed. If your going to attack one occupation at least have the balls to stand over your own and open it up to debate!

I don't see that many people attacking the job of Gardai in this thread, i see some people mentioning the age old issue of Gardai Landlords, i see some people mentioning fiscal management and i see YOU as being the one who has implied our fine uniformed forces would stoop to taking bribes.

So i think you have an odd interpretation of attacking an occupation.

Logical Fallacy

K-9 wrote: »

I don't think that's a fair interpretation of it either, 1% basically have nothing after standing orders are paid, nothing to live on, but of course we don't know what they are, could be a second house or high mortgage, 010 car etc, or it could be basic enough.

I'm sure more than 1% are just making ends meet or less, like the rest of us.

In fairness, given the numbers involved it's a fair enough assumption to make. If, lets say, 40% of Gardai were having trouble paying their bills then i would think that is a very, very high number and something is obviously amiss in the payscale. But it's not, it's 1%, an effective statistical deviance which would imply the root cause is the spending habits of the Gardai themselves.

I think , but don't want to assume or put forth an argument in your name either, that if this was about any other group of society it would be shrug the shoulders and tell them to cut back, move home, drop the SKy and the NTL and tighten the belts.

I am unsure why the Gardai expect the country to race to their rescue when there is hardly a person in the country who has not had to make some mild to severe changes to their spending over the last 3 years?

MisterAnarchy

Bosco boy wrote: »

I guess they shouldn't be allowed say anything about the private sector who got us into this mess!

Would that be the same private sector that funded the massive ,artificial and frankly undeserved increases in public sector pay over the last decade ?

Wolfe Tone

Gardaí in moany bollocks shocker.

bamboozle

suprise suprise the report is by RTE's crime correspondent Paul Reynolds, his father and brothers are all gardai so dont expect anything but the most biased slant from him.

RTE could have just made the headline 'some gardai have trouble managing their income' not sure why this story even made the news.

bamboozle

Bosco boy wrote: »

I guess they shouldn't be allowed say anything about the private sector who got us into this mess!

hmmmm.....dont let the facts get in the way of your argument

Financial Regulator - public sector
Central Bank - public sector
Government - public sector
Greedy public sector Unions - public sector
Banks - private sector
property developers - private sector

K-9

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

In fairness, given the numbers involved it's a fair enough assumption to make. If, lets say, 40% of Gardai were having trouble paying their bills then i would think that is a very, very high number and something is obviously amiss in the payscale. But it's not, it's 1%, an effective statistical deviance which would imply the root cause is the spending habits of the Gardai themselves.

I think , but don't want to assume or put forth an argument in your name either, that if this was about any other group of society it would be shrug the shoulders and tell them to cut back, move home, drop the SKy and the NTL and tighten the belts.

I am unsure why the Gardai expect the country to race to their rescue when there is hardly a person in the country who has not had to make some mild to severe changes to their spending over the last 3 years?

40% maybe having trouble paying bills, the article isn't about that, it's about 1% with nothing left over after standing orders.

Indeed, another way of looking at it is that only 1% are in extreme bother, so only a tiny % may have been irresponsible with spending, most are struggling like the rest of us.

You'd be correct in not assuming that, as I put that exact same argument forward in my previous post.

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Gardaí in moany bollocks shocker.

Wolfe Tone in one line flippant post at Gardai shocker!

delta720

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Gardaí in moany bollocks shocker.

I think the only time I've ever seen you give a positive comment on anything is if it is ultra-republican.

IRISHREDSTAR

The average weekly pay for a Garda was 837.87per week in 2000 in 2008 it was 1,207.24 per week or 62776 per year, – (cso) on top of this Gardai get allowances for thing like maintenance of the uniform even for pain clothes, rent allowances even if they live at home . 46 types of tax free allowance for all manner of things private sector workers are expected to pay. Garda allowances add up to 215 million a year. So Gardai really don’t have the same bills as normal people to start with. Gardai are not going to lose their homes as they don’t have to pay the mortgage out of their pay, they get a allowance for that.
On top of this they get a pension worth over a million
Because we have had a very large recruitment drive from 11000 Gardai to 1440 Gardai over a few years, we now have a very young force, as they age the pay bill will rocket as they are guaranteed a pay rise each year.
Any small cuts in Garda pay have already been overridden by their guaranteed yearly pay rise.

mcmoustache

@IRISHREDSTAR

Your post hurts my eyes. It's a good post with regard to content but a normal font would have sufficed.

Hill St Blue

Offy wrote: »

To hell with them, they dont serve the public anyway, they gather money for the government with bully boy methods. A leaving cert with 6 months in Templemore? €40k? They are way over paid imo, I know lots of professionals with degrees that dont get paid that much. As to the quality of service we public get for their €40k, its sucks most of the time. I truely hope the IMF slash their pay in half.

Just to clarify something with regards to the 40k figure that everyone is talking about, it takes quite a few years service before any Garda earns anything close to that figure...they all start off somewhere around 24k (although there has been a 20% cut to that also.) I'm not saying that's too high, or too low...just being factual.
Also, do you honestly think that there are no Gardai with Degrees, Masters' or even the odd Phd?! People from all walks of life and levels of education join An Garda Siochana...to generalise by stating that all Gardai just have 'a leaving cert with 6 months in Templemore' is just plain wrong.
I know we all rant and rave on AH (sure that's what it's for, eh?!) but the odd fact or two thrown into the debate can't hurt!

jagblad

This is the Garda sergeants and inspectors association (they're talking about their members). They’d be averaging somewhere from 50-70k I’d guess (couldn’t see the current scales anywhere handy.)

Incidentally by bills deducted I think they really mean repayments to their very own bad bank, the garda credit union. These are deducted from their salary checks. So while certainly a tough position, their problem is less USC and cuts than spending too much money in previous years.

Say they earn 5k a month, you’d normally expect to have close to 3k after all deductions including pension. Where’s the 3k going and why is my heart supposed to bleed.

In years gone by many Gardai coming up to retirement beyond the age of 50 felt they needed income from property rental as a means of supplementing what used be a very modest pension. Seemingly this continued (perhaps even worsened) when the salary/pension improved and has left many in trouble.

Certainly they're in a poorer position than many to be lecturing us on Seanie Fitz, Neary and co..

123balltv

My Cousin started off packing shelves in Dunnes left
joined the Garda with a basic leaving cert he has a good life now not
wealthy but comfortable he complains sometimes I tell him shut the
**** up I have a masters with no prospects except for immigrating

the_syco

WHAT JOBS ARE GARDAI ALLOWED TO WORK IN ?

I know there are jobs that they can work in, but have been unable to find the list. I know that jobs such as bouncers, etc, have been disallowed, but do not know what jobs there are allowed.

mcmoustache

Landlording for one.

HellFireClub

bamboozle wrote: »

hmmmm.....dont let the facts get in the way of your argument

Financial Regulator - public sector
Central Bank - public sector
Government - public sector
Greedy public sector Unions - public sector
Banks - private sector
property developers - private sector

Hundreds of thousands of tormented small businesses saddled with insane local authority rates and bullsh*t public service bullsh*t beaurocracy that is designed to do nothing else other than keep lazy unproductive people in paperpushing jobs-PRIVATE SECTOR

Enterpreneurs who risk their houses, family lives and the food on the table to create enterprise in Ireland and create jobs, even though they don't even have the fall back position of the dole of they fail-PRIVATE SECTOR

Millions of hard working decent people who have no real job security and don't have the bullying arm of a trade union to do their batting for them and who just have to get f*cking on with it and pay for the mess, that the PUBLIC SECTOR REGULATORS and WATCHKEEPERS caused because they were asleep at the wheel, probably because they were incompetent and lazy in the knowledge that they would never be held to account-PRIVATE SECTOR

HellFireClub

jagblad wrote: »

This is the Garda sergeants and inspectors association (they're talking about their members). They’d be averaging somewhere from 50-70k I’d guess (couldn’t see the current scales anywhere handy.)

Incidentally by bills deducted I think they really mean repayments to their very own bad bank, the garda credit union. These are deducted from their salary checks. So while certainly a tough position, their problem is less USC and cuts than spending too much money in previous years.

Say they earn 5k a month, you’d normally expect to have close to 3k after all deductions including pension. Where’s the 3k going and why is my heart supposed to bleed.

In years gone by many Gardai coming up to retirement beyond the age of 50 felt they needed income from property rental as a means of supplementing what used be a very modest pension. Seemingly this continued (perhaps even worsened) when the salary/pension improved and has left many in trouble.

Certainly they're in a poorer position than many to be lecturing us on Seanie Fitz, Neary and co..

This is exactly what is going on...

wolfpawnat

I am struggling to pay bills on 1/4 that!!!!

Talk to Joe!

Einhard wrote: »

What are bills exactly? There was a woman on RTE News last week complaining that she couldn't afford the essentials in life anymore, such as er, her son's swimming lessons.

Think that's bad, I know a woman that is in tears because she has to rent a smaller house, and that....... her daughters may have to share a room so she can have a guest room. WTF?!?!?!? I am sharing a room with my toddler!