Gardaí demand end to two-tier pay rates

Rank and file gardaí are set to demand the restoration of 22% of pay lost since the recession and the end to a two-tier system which saw new entrants to the force hit with even more swingeing cuts to wages and allowances.

It is expected that frontline gardaí will adopt a more militant stance on recouping the cuts when the Garda Representative Association’s (GRA) annual conference gets under way in Killarney tonight .

They will press for the end to discrimination against new entrants, who after October 1, 2013, came in on wages that were 10% lower than their colleagues. They were also denied a rent allowance worth more than €4,000 a year, which their colleagues retained.