Ageing Garda vehicles pose safety and insurance issues

COMMITTEE:AGEING GARDA vehicles, some of which have more than 300,000km on the clock, pose safety and insurance issues for gardaí, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has told a Dáil committee.

Mr Shatter also confirmed the Revenue Commissioners had presented the Garda with a tax demand of €12.4 million in respect of its corporate liability for PAYE and PRSI on a range of Garda allowances. The allowances paid to gardaí, alongside salaries,include items such as boots, uniform, plain clothes and detective allowances.

Addressing the Dáil Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality yesterday, Mr Shatter said the cost of running the Garda had been traditionally underestimated by his department.

For example, he said, the cost of running the Garda vehicle fleet was currently €24 million per year. But the figure provided in last year’s budget was just €12 million. While he said some Garda cars with more than 300,000km on the clock were “in good nick”, there was “an insurance risk even if the cars are well maintained”.

Mr Shatter pointed out the imperative was to ensure cars were safe and that they fulfilled the needs of the Garda. But he said funding was limited. “I am going to look at that but I don’t know if you can resolve it,” he said.

He said the cost of the visit of Queen Elizabeth and President Obama was €36 million, which included payroll costs of €28.5 million, of which overtime accounted for almost €24 million. Travel and subsistence payments cost €3 million, specialist equipment and clothing €1.5 million, and other non-payroll expenditure almost €3 million.

But Mr Shatter said there would be a substantial return to the exchequer of more in the payroll costs, through taxation. He also revealed the tax demand for Garda allowances – such as boots, uniform and detective allowances – would be a circular payment with the money “going back to the exchequer immediately, in the form of a payment to the Revenue Commissioners”.

Mr Shatter said the situation arose following a Revenue determination that the Garda allowances were taxable. From January next gardaí will be taxed individually on the allowances, he said.

The additional costs associated with the visits of the heads of state, combined with the tax demand, exceeded the Garda’s overall budget by some €27.4 million, he said. But Mr Shatter said the figures were more of a “technical accounting exercise to reallocate budgets between certain subheads” and “did not require any additional funding”.

Mr Shatter paid tribute to the Garda authorities, who he said had been instrumental in successive reductions in serious crime and road fatalities.