by Kate Heaney
THERE has been a substantial increase in the overtime bill for the Donegal Garda Division during the first three months of this year, according to figures published.
The overtime bill for the local division for January, February and March this year was €817,599.
This compares with Sligo/Leitrim Division at €396,768; Kerry Division at €419,600; Cavan/Monaghan Division at €456,933 and Meath Division at €692,531. The overtime bill for Donegal for the same period in 2019 was €503,563.
The amount of overtime charged by the Garda HQ and National Units came to €9,383,918 while the total overtime bill for the country for the first three months was €35,243,252.
The amount spent on Garda staff overtime in the first three months of the year in the Donegal Division was €17,874.
The amount spent in the same period in Cavan/Monaghan Division was €359; Sligo/Leitrim was €6,589 and in National Units and Garda HQ the spend was €260,432.
The total spent on staff overtime in quarter one was €547,140.
A response to a request for a breakdown of the figures for Donegal had not been received at the time of going to press.
A statement accompanying the figures read; “the nature of Garda work and the requirement that the Garda authorities respond, in some cases at short notice, to immediate policing demands means that there is a necessity to incur overtime expenses to ensure effective policing.
“Accordingly, there will always be a need for a certain level of overtime to allow An Garda Síochána flexibility when responding to circumstances that require additional resources for specific operations. These additional resources will have to be over and above those available from Gardaí on rostered duty thus ensuring the continuation of normal policing duties unabated”.
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