SECURITY: Senior gardaí were among the biggest winners in the benchmarking process, with 16 per cent pay rises recommended for chief superintendents and superintendents.
Their awards were more than three times the 5 per cent recommended for members of the force at the basic Garda rank. Sergeants and inspectors received 6 per cent.
Lower-ranking members of the force expressed bitter disappointment at the recommendations.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said the benchmarking body had failed to give adequate recognition to the critical role of sergeants and inspectors. Its general secretary Mr George Maybury said both should have been given the same pay increase as superintendents.
He claimed those who had come out worst of benchmarking were not represented by trade unions. "It is hard not to come to the conclusion that we have been victimised because of our lack of trade union status," he said.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) reported intense anger from gardaí across the State.
"It is now clear that this entire process ignored the reality of the difficult and dangerous work of individual members of Garda rank throughout the country," its general secretary, Mr P.J. Stone, said.
"Despite a detailed presentation from the GRA, the work and commitment of gardaí has been ignored in the interest of facilitating groups who created more tension and issued louder warnings.
The GRA played this process by the book - we made detailed and professional presentations and we have been essentially ignored," he said.
Chief Supt John O'Brien, an executive member of the Association of Chief Superintendents, said members were quite positive about the report but that how its recommendations were phased in would impact on how good the offer was.
The general secretary of the Association of Garda Superintendents, Supt Joe Staunton, said he could not comment on the report until it had been assessed by consultants engaged by the association and until the associations's executive had examined it.
Like gardaí, staff in the lower grades of the prison service fared worst, with a recommendation that prison officers get a 4 per cent pay increase, while assistant governors and deputy governors got 15 per cent.
Mr John Clinton, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA), said most lower grades would be furious with the recommendations.
The POA executive will meet today to consider the report in detail.
The recommended pay increases for staff in the defence forces including Army, Navy and Air Corps personnel, range from 4 per cent for sergeants and technicians to 15 per cent for commandant engineers.
Again, lower-ranking officers were the ones who were most unhappy yesterday.
Comdt Adrian Ryan, deputy general secretary of RACO, said the awards for higher-ranking officers were "fair" but he was concerned that the lower awards, such as the 6.5 per cent increase for captains, would do nothing to stop the numbers of IT specialists leaving the Army and pilots leaving the Air Corps.
A spokesman for PDFORRA said there was significant disappointment among people in the lower ranks of the defence forces but it had yet to consider the report in detail.