Gardaí struggling to pay bills - AGSI

Chuck Stone

2 things to say - one is a concern and the other is advice.

1. I'm worried that people who are supposed to be competent enough to protect and serve the community and up-hold the institutions of the state can't even budget their income.

2. Change job if you think you're underpaid nobody is forcing them to saty in it.

tinofapples

FatherLen wrote: »

join the club...

Exactly. Should they be above the rest of us ???

HellFireClub

This is a classic case of PS insiders, used to a bit of power and foot stamping, reckoning that they are beyond or above the austerity that the rest of us are being told we are carrying.

As a previous poster said, go see MAAB's and sit in the queue like the rest of us have to.

bonzos

I am unemployed at the moment and I am sick to the teeth of gardai retiring in my local town who retire on a Friday get their lump sum, pension and muscle their way into jobs and start work the following Monday....Its a total disgrace that at a time when 450,000+ people are unemployed,fathers are working in London and flying home once a month to see their kids that this BS is going on!If you are lucky enough to have a job and need the money KEEP WORKING,dont retire,but if you want to retire fair enough put you feet up but dont push your way into a job because you fancy topping up your pension at a time when so many people are crying out for work!!!!

DoesNotCompute

Jazlyn Attractive File wrote: »

In the news today. "Gardaí struggling to pay bills - AGSI" The average Garda takes home about €40,000 before overtime per year. Is this not the same for most people?

Lies. There's no way the average Garda takes home 40k per year.

More baseless public/civil servant bashing.

K-9

Guards not having to pay mortgages? Where do people get this stuff?

Credit Union loans that swallow up their pay cheque. Only in AH. No wonder people are so angry at the Public Sector when urban legends like this go round.

POGAN

If a garda gets into debt he can lose his job...

HellFireClub

bonzos wrote: »

I am unemployed at the moment and I am sick to the teeth of gardai retiring in my local town who retire on a Friday get their lump sum, pension and muscle their way into jobs and start work the following Monday....Its a total disgrace that at a time when 450,000+ people are unemployed,fathers are working in London and flying home once a month to see their kids that this BS is going on!If you are lucky enough to have a job and need the money KEEP WORKING,dont retire,but if you want to retire fair enough put you feet up but dont push your way into a job because you fancy topping up your pension at a time when so many people are crying out for work!!!!

Don't want to go off topic, but on a similar theme, I personally know of a primary school in Dublin where kids were sent home within the last month because of staff shortages, caused by some teachers over a fortnight in the school having landed a census enemurator job and taking the time off for that.

IRISHREDSTAR

K-9 wrote: »

Guards not having to pay mortgages? Where do people get this stuff?

Credit Union loans that swallow up their pay cheque. Only in AH. No wonder people are so angry at the Public Sector when urban legends like this go round.

They get a tax free rent allowance which they use to pay their mortgage it's not a urban legend.

And average Garda pay is over 60 grand a year +a big fat pension worth over a million, it's really a bit like winning the lotto

HellFireClub

POGAN wrote: »

If a garda gets into debt he can lose his job...

No, Gardai can get into debt just like the rest of us. They cannot be a Garda and be a bankrupt. Very few people are declared bankrupt in this state.

The time for thinking about the risk here on this front was when the Garda was signing for an interest only mortgage on an investment property or numerous investment properties.

Taking out several interest only mortgages when your primary income could be compromised if you become bankrupt, this is nothing more and nothing less than a very poor investment decision and I can't see any reason whatsoever ever why Gardai should be protected from their own stupidity anymore than the rest of us...

They must be trying to take the absolute p*ss out of the people living in this state. They are furious at special treatment for bankers, bonuses, etc, claiming that equal treatment ought to apply, and that bankers by their poor decisions have ruined the country, yet they want preferential treatment for themselves in relation to losses and perceived hardships, completely brought about by their own poor investment decisions?!?!?!?!?

gurramok

DoesNotCompute wrote: »

Lies. There's no way the average Garda takes home 40k per year.

More baseless public/civil servant bashing.

Enjoy the read from 2009. http://www.tribune.ie/article/2009/nov/15/frontline-battle/

Gardaí

A bewildering array of allowances costing €215m last year – €300 per week per garda – as well as overtime costing €115m (€109 per week per member) brings an average garda's weekly income to €1,208.

Gardaí also get a rent allowance of €4,300 a year. This cost almost €60m last year.

While the Frontline Alliance makes much of the '24/7' service its members provide, they are well compensated for it. For example, gardaí are paid an unsocial hours allowance for working between 6pm and 8am, and an extra day's pay for working a Sunday. These cost almost €100m last year, yielding around €10,000 a year per garda.

A clerical allowance of over €5,000 a year is paid to gardaí confined to desk work, primarily in compensation for not being able to claim the above unsocial hours' allowances.

More minor allowances include a uniform maintenance allowance (€4.39 a week), plain clothes allowance (€12.21 a week), boot allowance (€2.93 a week), a cycle allowance (€2.53 a week) and a detective allowance (€28.19 a week). Juvenile liaison and community relations gardaí are paid an extra €28.19 a week.

Policing the Gaeltacht areas attracts an additional €3,500 allowance while those working on the islands get an extra €1,500 a year.

Allowances for extra duties or skill sets which cannot be encompassed within the hierarchical grade and pay structure of An Garda Síochána are also paid. Recipients include ministerial drivers, who get an extra 40% – around €19,000 a year.

Gardaí working in the change management unit get an allowance of €6,500 a year. In the air support unit they get €5,000, PSV (public service vehicle) inspectors get €5,000, crime scene examiners get €3,000, radio section officers get €5,300, technical bureau officers receive €5,400 after five years, water unit gardaí receive €5,050 and a welfare officer gets €7,800.

While secure pensions paying 50% of an index-linked salary for life is a major perk for all public servants, gardaí have the additional perk of being able to retire at 50 on a full pension – a benefit which Colm McCarthy estimated would cost 48% of a garda's salary to fund.

delta720

bonzos wrote: »

I am unemployed at the moment and I am sick to the teeth of gardai retiring in my local town who retire on a Friday get their lump sum, pension and muscle their way into jobs and start work the following Monday....Its a total disgrace that at a time when 450,000+ people are unemployed,fathers are working in London and flying home once a month to see their kids that this BS is going on!If you are lucky enough to have a job and need the money KEEP WORKING,dont retire,but if you want to retire fair enough put you feet up but dont push your way into a job because you fancy topping up your pension at a time when so many people are crying out for work!!!!

Could you elaborate on the bolded parts?


AH's should really just have a big list of generalisations that we could select from instead of poor people that know little about the actual situations having to waste their time typing out the same shíte every day.

My opinion on this is that the guards, originally in question, basically lived beyond their means during the boom years like so many others. Now their having a moan about it, but who cares.

During the 00's the private sector was where the money was at and you were mad if you went from college into a Public Service job, now everyone see's the PS with their job security and wants to pull them down. If you were so concerned why didn't YOU join the PS back in the boom years? Because you wanted your BMW or your Jeep and your weekend trips to NY, simple as.


When I graduate I'd probable see myself working in the private sector, cause some day I want to be filthy rich, but I understand that that could also mean job insecurity especially in my specialised area, but I won't some crying onto an internet forum about everyone elses career choices just cause my own don't work out....

IRISHREDSTAR

HellFireClub wrote: »

Don't want to go off topic, but on a similar theme, I personally know of a primary school in Dublin where kids were sent home within the last month because of staff shortages, caused by some teachers over a fortnight in the school having landed a census enemurator job and taking the time off for that.

Yep and our local Garda supt retired on a really big pension only to walk straight into a cusy public sector job in the local dole office of all places
why could they not have taken somebody of the dole rather that give him two pay checks.

HellFireClub

delta720 wrote: »

Could you elaborate on the bolded parts?


AH's should really just have a big list of generalisations that we could select from instead of poor people that know little about the actual situations having to waste their time typing out the same shíte every day.

My opinion on this is that the guards, originally in question, basically lived beyond their means during the boom years like so many others. Now their having a moan about it, but who cares.

During the 00's the private sector was where the money was at and you were mad if you went from college into a Public Service job, now everyone see's the PS with their job security and wants to pull them down. If you were so concerned why didn't YOU join the PS back in the boom years? Because you wanted your BMW or your Jeep and your weekend trips to NY, simple as.


When I graduate I'd probable see myself working in the private sector, cause some day I want to be filthy rich, but I understand that that could also mean job insecurity especially in my specialised area, but I won't some crying onto an internet forum about everyone elses career choices just cause my own don't work out....

There is nobody who is more tuned in to life in Ireland at the moment than the man/woman on the dole. Speaking of stupid irrational generations that you appear to have such an issue with, when and how did you get it into your head that the generation ahead of you were all going around with their heads up their arses driving BMW's, Jeeps and traipsing over to NY every few weeks????????????

HellFireClub

IRISHREDSTAR wrote: »

Yep and our local Garda supt retired on a really big pension only to walk straight into a cusy public sector job in the local dole office of all places
why could they not have taken somebody of the dole rather that give him two pay checks.

And when you do the analysis on the cause of this madness, the answer is always the same, greed, greed and more f*cking greed.

Mr Jinx

bonzos wrote: »

I am unemployed at the moment and I am sick to the teeth of gardai retiring in my local town who retire on a Friday get their lump sum, pension and muscle their way into jobs and start work the following Monday....Its a total disgrace that at a time when 450,000+ people are unemployed,fathers are working in London and flying home once a month to see their kids that this BS is going on!If you are lucky enough to have a job and need the money KEEP WORKING,dont retire,but if you want to retire fair enough put you feet up but dont push your way into a job because you fancy topping up your pension at a time when so many people are crying out for work!!!!

How the hell do they "muscle" their way into a job ?? What was stopping you from getting the job on the friday?? Maybe they were employed on merit, just because you werent good enough for the job.

HellFireClub

Mr Jinx wrote: »

How the hell do they "muscle" their way into a job ?? What was stopping you from getting the job on the friday?? Maybe they were employed on merit, just because you werent good enough for the job.

It's a braindead stupid state that pays a man a huge pension a year, also pays him a wage, pays him a lump sum on retirement, while also paying another man 10K a year in social welfare, and doesn't stop to think if it might be a smarter thing to do, to marry up the unemployed man/woman with the vacancy and tell the loaded insider that he has had his day in the sun and to chillax and not be so f*cking hungry and enjoy his retirement...

Mr Jinx

Jazlyn Attractive File wrote: »

In the news today. "Gardaí struggling to pay bills - AGSI" The average Garda takes home about €40,000 before overtime per year. Is this not the same for most people?

It probably is, doesnt mean people cant highlight the issue. There's nothing stopping your union/rep body doing the same. People will just jump on this bandwagon because its the Guards/public sector. Get on to your own union!

danbohan

MagicMarker wrote: »

Heard this in the news this morning...

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0419/agsi_garda.html



That's pretty shocking tbf...

EDIT: Actually the impression I had gotten from the news that there was no money left to pay them, not that they had no money themselves after paying their own bills. In that case, join the club!!

the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors says 120 gardaí could not pay their bills this year.

is that 120 to be added to the thousands of them that think it hard to pay their bills in the good times , getting money out of gardai is like pulling hens teeth!

Mr Jinx

HellFireClub wrote: »

It's a braindead stupid state that pays a man a huge pension a year, also pays him a wage, pays him a lump sum on retirement, while also paying another man 10K a year in social welfare, and doesn't stop to think if it might be a smarter thing to do, to marry up the unemployed man/woman with the vacancy and tell the loaded insider that he has had his day in the sun and to chillax and not be so f*cking hungry and enjoy his retirement...

yes, give a job to a person who may be less qualified because they are on the dole, that will get the country back on its feet.

HellFireClub

Mr Jinx wrote: »

yes, give a job to a person who may be less qualified because they are on the dole, that will get the country back on its feet.

The only qualification you need to be a Garda is a Leaving Cert, and not a particularly brilliant one at that, GET REAL!

danbohan

Mr Jinx wrote: »

yes, give a job to a person who may be less qualified because they are on the dole, that will get the country back on its feet.

less qualified ? , lol . public sector retired should lose their pension if they do any work after retiring , unless voluntary work

HellFireClub

Mr Jinx wrote: »

yes, give a job to a person who may be less qualified because they are on the dole, that will get the country back on its feet.

And you are obviously not the sharpest tool in the box yourself when you assume that people who are unemployed and on the dole are somehow not carrying a better qualifaction than a Leaving Cert. I know folks on the dole with Hon. Degrees and Masters Degrees. You're talking out of your ar*ehole.

the_syco

HellFireClub wrote: »

to chillax

Although I sort of agree with you, I'll also have to say that any Garda that I know who has been thrown out of the force because of his age, they don't just "shut down". They often keep on going, using any certs that they got whilst in the force to their advantage to get a job, and to keep on working.

IRISHREDSTAR

Mr Jinx wrote: »

How the hell do they "muscle" their way into a job ?? What was stopping you from getting the job on the friday?? Maybe they were employed on merit, just because you werent good enough for the job.

I am not on the dole but somebody who is could have taken it. as for merit. His job is to sweep up and deliver letters in the building.

delta720

HellFireClub wrote: »

There is nobody who is more tuned in to life in Ireland at the moment than the man/woman on the dole. Speaking of stupid irrational generations that you appear to have such an issue with, when and how did you get it into your head that the generation ahead of you were all going around with their heads up their arses driving BMW's, Jeeps and traipsing over to NY every few weeks????????????

Yes they did, the expanding upper middle class in Ireland who liked to live beyond their means to impress their neighbours definitely existed. I have every sympathy for the working class who lost their job after working blue collar for 20 years.

That being said there are plenty of people on the dole who lived far beyond their means over the last 10 years and now basicly have a grudge against public servants simply because they have secure jobs. It really comes down to greed, 5 years ago I would have been better off working on a building site (as an example) then joining army/guards/civil service etc, I went to college. Now there's thousands of unemployed labourers, and while I can't blame them for taking the work, I can't stand listening to them complaining about having to emigrate when they choose a job that is so insecure.

As I said, I have no sympathy for the 120 guards that are paying more than they earn, but it's crazy to just bash all PS's because of the job they chose. It's their job of course they're going to want to earn as much as they can, no one wants to have to take a pay cut, but people keep sprouting this holier than thou crap about one sector being greedy scum, while the other are all just honest hard workers who never did anything for their own self can in their lives. I'd love to see the tax returns from all these poor small businesses during the boom years.

HellFireClub

the_syco wrote: »

Although I sort of agree with you, I'll also have to say that any Garda that I know who has been thrown out of the force because of his age, they don't just "shut down". They often keep on going, using any certs that they got whilst in the force to their advantage to get a job, and to keep on working.

It's pure unbridled greed, if they want to keep active, why wouldn't they try some voluntary work which they would be ideally suited or given their unique position in the community???

HellFireClub

delta720 wrote: »

Yes they did, the expanding upper middle class in Ireland who liked to live beyond their means to impress their neighbours definitely existed. I have every sympathy for the working class who lost their job after working blue collar for 20 years.

That being said there are plenty of people on the dole who lived far beyond their means over the last 10 years and now basicly have a grudge against public servants simply because they have secure jobs. It really comes down to greed, 5 years ago I would have been better off working on a building site (as an example) then joining army/guards/civil service etc, I went to college. Now there's thousands of unemployed labourers, and while I can't blame them for taking the work, I can't stand listening to them complaining about having to emigrate when they choose a job that is so insecure.

As I said, I have no sympathy for the 120 guards that are paying more than they earn, but it's crazy to just bash all PS's because of the job they chose. It's their job of course they're going to want to earn as much as they can, no one wants to have to take a pay cut, but people keep sprouting this holier than thou crap about one sector being greedy scum, while the other are all just honest hard workers who never did anything for their own self can in their lives. I'd love to see the tax returns from all these poor small businesses during the boom years.

I don't have a grudge against PS workers, but I have a huge issue with anyone in this country at the current time telling me that a 40K basic salary before other benefits such as generous allowances and overtime, is poor pay. That's bullsh*t and I'll never accept it.

K-9

IRISHREDSTAR wrote: »

They get a tax free rent allowance which they use to pay their mortgage it's not a urban legend.

And average Garda pay is over 60 grand a year +a big fat pension worth over a million, it's really a bit like winning the lotto

It's a rent allowance though.

Even so:

IrishRedStar wrote:

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.

Your claim is that they don't have to pay a mortgage out of their wage, which is ridiculous. That's like saying people who get Mortgage Interest Relief don't pay mortgages.

delta720

HellFireClub wrote: »

And you are obviously not the sharpest tool in the box yourself when you assume that people who are unemployed and on the dole are somehow not carrying a better qualifaction than a Leaving Cert. I know folks on the dole with Hon. Degrees and Masters Degrees. You're talking out of your ar*ehole.

And you are obviously not the sharpest tool in the box yourself when you assume that people who are in the Guards are somehow not carrying a better qualifaction than a Leaving Cert. I know folks in the Guards with Hon. Degrees and Masters Degrees and Doctorates. You're talking out of your ar*ehole.