The withholding of pay rises from junior gardaí has been described by their representative body as “punitive” and unfair.
Nearly 100 trainee gardaí will not receive a €2,000 pay increment due to the stand-off between the Government and the Garda Representative Association over the Lansdowne Road agreement.
The Government has withheld incremental pay rises due to GRA members and also to members of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI), as both have rejected the pay accord.
The financial penalties came into effect at the beginning of July but the trainee gardaí are understood to be the largest group affected to date.
The Department of Justice said 97 trainee gardaí were attested on July 23rd, 2015, and were due to receive increments from Saturday, under which they would move from the first point on the pay scale of €23,750 to €25,727.
But the department said that pay rise was being withheld as the GRA is outside of the Lansdowne Road deal.
Under the Government’s Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Fempi) legislation, increments for members of groups deemed to have repudiated an agreement can be frozen until 2018.
GRA president Ciarán O’Neill said the association was “extremely disappointed” the Government had imposed the Fempi legislation on its members, particularly while they were still in talks on the topic.
“This legislation is unduly harsh and will have a significant impact on our younger members,” Mr O’Neill said.
Rent allowance
He said the fact the Garda members would not receive any pay increase until 2018, along with the Government taking away their rent allowance of €4,017.55, meant these officers were earning more than €6,000 less than they should be.
“This is just too punitive,” Mr O’Neill said.
“Our 10,000-plus members of the Garda Representative Association have already fulfilled their obligations under the Haddington Road Agreement and accepted the pay cuts imposed upon them and worked an extra three days annually for three years without payment,” he added.
“The imposition of Fempi is a step too far. We are still engaged with the department and while some progress has been made, we feel that freezing members pay while we’re still in negotiations is totally unfair.”
Minster for Justice Frances Fitzgerald said at the weekend the Government's door was open for the GRA to return to talks on the Lansdowne Road deal.
She hoped a combination of Government offers to gardaí and investment in policing would encourage them to accept the Lansdowne Road deal which she said could help the State “move on to a new era with policing”.
Some of the main concerns of gardaí in rejecting the Lansdowne Road accord was that a pay review promised originally – under the previous Haddington Road agreement – had not taken place.
Government sources previously said new entrant gardaí could receive about €4,000 in restored allowances by November, if the GRA agreed to enter into the Lansdowne Road deal.