Garda overtime in Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim cost over €2m last year



Garda overtime in the Donegal and Sligo Leitrim Garda division cost over €2m last year.

However, Donegal had double the overtime hours and expenditure than its Sligo Leitrim counterparts.

 

The new figures from the Department of Justice show that there is a heavy reliance on Garda overtime in order to deal with dwindling resources.

But the figures which have been released to Sligo Leitrim Fine Gael TD Tony McLoughlin in response to a parliamentary question show that the overtime hours in the Sligo Leitrim Garda division are half of the hours being done in Donegal and Mayo.

It’s understood despite a desperate need for more resources in Sligo Leitrim, the overtime is not being sanctioned.

In 2016, over 20,000 overtime hours were clocked up in Sligo Leitrim compared to over 41,000 in the Donegal division and 53,000 in Mayo.

The cost to the taxpayer was over €1.7m in Mayo, €1.3m in Donegal and a more modest figure of just over €655,000 in Sligo Leitrim.

The overtime for Donegal and Mayo takes into account major policing operations including the visit of Prince Charles in Donegal and the visit of Joe Biden to Mayo.

The Roscommon Longford and Cavan Monaghan division also had higher overtime hours than Sligo Leitrim last year at over 25,000 and 30,000 hours respectively.

 



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