Outbreak proves expensive

THOUSANDS of public servants shared a tm200 million overtime bonanza last year with top earning prison officers and gardai topping the league.

The top earning prison officer pocketed an extra tm72,000 while the biggest overtime earner in the gardai got an extra tm58,000.

The report of the public spending watchdog, Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell, reveals that the bill for overtime for both prison officers and Gardai has soared by about 50 per cent since 1997.

Last year, the foot-and-mouth crisis also resulted in a sharp jump in the Department of Agriculture overtime bill with the top earner getting an extra tm61,000.

Foot-and-mouth also pushed up the Garda bill with an extra tm19 million paid to 700 Gardai deployed to cope with the crisis.

In fact Gardai took home 42 per cent of the state's overall overtime bill. Over 12,000 members of the force shared tm66 million between them.

Extra cash for prison officers accounted for 28 percent of the bill with 3,200 officers sharing the tm43 million involved.

Other big earners in the overtime league included a Revenue Commissioner staffer who got an extra tm46,000, Public Enterprise tm34,000, Environment tm26,000 and the Land Registry tm26,000.

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