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APPENDIX VIII.(1) PAYMENT TO FURNITURE REMOVAL COMPANY.(2) EX-GRATIA PAYMENT IN RESPECT OF LOSS OF BICYCLE.Rúnaí, Coiste um Chuntais Phoiblí. At the proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee on the 22nd July I undertook to supply further information in connection with the following matters which appear in the notes to the Appropriation Account for the Gárda Síochána for the year 1952/53. (1) the payment of £6 6s. 0d. to a furniture removal company for travelling to remove the furniture of a member of the Force whose removal had been postponed, and (2) the ex-gratia payment of £5 in respect of the loss of a bicycle held in Gárda Síochána custody. With regard to (1) the transfers of two Sergeants, one from Enniscrone to Arklow and the other from Arklow to Enniscrone, were ordered to take place on the 22nd May, 1952. To minimise expense a joint removal of the furniture of the two men was arranged. The Sergeant at Enniscrone also made arrangements with the removal company, which had its premises at Sligo, to have his furniture packed on the 21st May so that an early start could be made for Arklow on the 22nd idem. The Commissioner found it necessary to postpone the transfers at the last moment but the notifications which were sent by post, did not reach the Sergeant at Enniscrone until the 21st May, by which time the removal firm had sent out their vans to pack the furniture. The firm claimed and was paid the sum of £6 6s. 0d. in respect of the mileage travelled and the time of the men employed. Instructions have now been issued that in future cases of the kind the cancellation of the transfer is to be notified to those concerned by telephone where a postal communication is unlikely to reach its destination in time to prevent the incurring of avoidable expense. As regards (2) the payment of £5 0s. 0d. was made in the following circumstances. In February, 1950, a bicycle which was found on a public thoroughfare in Dublin was taken possession of by the Gárda at Fitzgibbon Street Station. In March, 1951, the finder requested that the bicycle be returned to him as the owner had not been discovered. The machine could not, however, be found, and there was no record in the Station of its having been received although there was evidence that it had been brought there by the Guard who had collected it from the finder. Disciplinary charges were preferred against four members of the Force who were considered to have been responsible in varying degrees for the loss of the machine. Fines were imposed on two of them, one was reprimanded and the other cautioned. With the sanction of the Department of Finance, a sum of £5 was paid to the finder as compensation, the payment being ex gratia for the reason that the liability of the State (as distinct from the personal liability of the member or members of the Force against whom negligence can be proved) is open to doubt in cases of the kind and was not admitted or established in this particular case. (Signed) THOMAS J. COYNE, Secretary, Department of Justice. 8 Samhain, 1954. |
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