Pension bonanza for retiring senior members of Garda

New figures show that one retiring assistant Garda commissioner received a golden handshake of over €200,000 last year as part of a pension arrangement.

According to figures released by the Department of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act, the State paid out €41.94 million in lump sums to retiring gardai of all ranks last year. This followed a lump sum pension pay-out of €46.81 million in 2011.

The pension lump sum payout last year is slightly more than the entire Garda overtime bill of €41.5 million in 2012.

The figures show that the only assistant commissioner to retire last year received a lump sum of €207,927 with five chief superintendents receiving pension lump sums of between €170,000 and €183,005.

The department confirmed that 81 retirees received lump sum payments of over €100,000 in 2012.

The statistics show that the top 25 recipients – made up of the assistant commissioner, five chief superintendents and 19 superintendents - last year shared a pension payout of €3.8 million.

The department also confirmed that there are five retired members of the force receiving annual pension payments in excess of €100,000 with a further two receiving annual payments of between €70,000 and €79,999.

The figures reveal that 30 retired members are in receipt of annual pension payouts of between €60,000 and €69,999, with 120 in receipt of pension payouts of €50,000 and €59,999 per annum.

The deptartment did not disclose the location details of the top 25 recipients “as it may lead to identification of the individuals concerned”.

Last year, 462 gardai retired receiving on average lump sum of €90,799 each.

Separate figures provided by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter show that last year one assistant commissioner retired along with five chief superintendents and 19 superintendents.

They were joined by 24 inspectors, 119 sergeants and 294 rank and file gardai.

The 462 gardai who retired last year followed 480 who retired in 2011. This followed 407 who retired in 2010; 776 in 2009 and 341 in 2008.

Since 2008, 143 members of the force with a rank of superintendent or higher have received the bumper pension lump sums after retiring from the force.

According to Mr Shatter in a written Dail response to Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle, 95 superintendents have retired; 34 chief superintendents; 12 assistant commissioners; one deputy commissioner and one commissioner have retired during that time.

Fianna Fail justice spokesman Niall Collins said yesterday the large number of retirements from senior ranks from the force "has left a leadership vacuum in the force and it is demoralising for the force to see vacancies unfilled up along the chain of command".