Gardai earn the second-highest average weekly wage in the public service after prison officers, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Last year, the average public servant earned £422.41 weekly, including overtime payments, while gardai were paid an average of £522.16 weekly - almost a third more than the average.
The quarterly review of public sector earnings, published yesterday, details the pay of civil servants, Defence Forces members, teachers, local authority and semi-state workers, prison officers and gardai between 1988 and September 1997. Prison officers are the best paid, earning an average of £675.99 a week, or 22 per cent more than gardai. But when overtime is taken from the average weekly wage, Garda pay stands at £473.23 weekly, compared to £450 for prison officers.
The average weekly pay indicates a gross average annual salary for gardai of almost £25,000. The basic Garda pay rates are between £12,000 for a recruit and £40,000 for a chief superintendent after four years' service; but allowances increase this figure.
The GRA has argued its members should not have to rely on these allowances to bring their wages to parity with other public sector workers, and are insisting on a basic wage increase.
The average wage for gardai is higher than the rest of the listed public sector, apart from those of primary and secondary school teachers.
The CSO also calculates the average wage increases in the last 10 years, showing gardai have received a 70.6 per cent increase - 21 per cent behind prison officers in the same period. Their pay rose by 91.7 per cent since 1988.
The 70.6 per cent refers to the increase in pay, including overtime, with a lower 52.7 per cent increase in the pay-alone rate, slightly below the average pay increase of 58 per cent.
The large increase in prison officers' average earnings, from £347 a week in March 1988 to £675.99 last September, is explained by the pay deal agreed by the Prison Officers' Association last year, much overtime, and more productivity.
The POA negotiated a rise of between 5.2 and 12.9 per cent for various prison officer grades, in return for more productivity.
