Gardaí overtime payments up 50% to €84m

OVERTIME payments to gardaí and prison officers have risen by 50% in the past five years.

Last year, gardaí received almost €84m in overtime and the payments to gardaí totalled almost €326m over the past five years.

Prison officers got more than €55m in overtime last year and received almost €223m between 1997 and 2001.