Call for end to performance related bonuses

MIDDLE-RANKING gardaí have called for an end to performance-related bonuses to senior officers.

Delegates to the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said that in the current economic climate top Garda bosses should not be getting bonus top-ups.

John Sherlock of the Cavan/Monaghan branch told the conference yesterday that 15 senior gardaí from the rank of assistant commissioner up received bonuses in 2007.

“Those who benefited from the bonus scheme were on salaries ranging from e138,683 to e186,891 a year,” he said.

He said the officers shared e185,000 between them under the scheme.

“Those persons at both the lower and middle managerial grades were excluded from any such bonus payments irrespective of the results they delivered.

“In an era of financial restrictions and cutbacks we cannot afford such payments and they can no longer be paid to the select few.”

Supporting the motion, Paul Wallace of the Donegal branch said performance-related targets in any organisation were not achieved by members in the upper echelons, but by those delivering the service on the ground.

The conference passed a motion from the Longford/Westmeath and Dublin Metropolitan Region North branches calling for an end to the use of videotapes to record interviews and instead to use DVD digital technology.

Michael Higgins of DMR North told delegates, to some laughter, that a young man had been in recently for an interview and he asked what the video tape and recorder was, which summed up how out of date the technology was. The conference continues today.