Chief officers face dilemma over redundancy payments

The redundancy scheme used to increase the proportion of Catholics in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is expected to reach £500m when it ends in ten weeks time and two chief officers are faced with the choice to accept payments of £500,000 by March.

As part of the Good Friday Agreement, the Patten scheme included a final redundancy payout for former Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers to leave the PSNI, with the intention of recruiting new officers, 50 per cent of whom had to be Catholic.

Catholics now account for 30 per cent of the PSNI, compared with eight per cent in the former RUC.

Over 4,000 officers have taken voluntary redundancy over the past ten years as part of the scheme and an additional 1,000 members of the full-time reserve left under a compulsory severance scheme.

The cost of the scheme totalled £475 million as of November 2010 and will increase as another 160 regular officers and some 270 members of the full-time reserve also accept the payment.

Those figures include the PSNI’s deputy chief constable and assistant chief constable, who could receive more than £500,000 each if they decide to take the redundancy package. If they remain in their jobs past March, they will not be entitled to receive the payment. Deputy Chief Constable Judith Gillespie and Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McAusland have not, as yet, expressed a desire to take the package.

Sinn Fein has criticised the cost of the scheme but Justice Minister David Ford said that the high payments were considered necessary at the time.

Mr Ford said: “Patten saw the significant redundancy packages as a major part of changing the nature of the RUC into the PSNI.

“Changing the personnel, introducing the new members by allowing if possible those who had served during the difficult days to leave with dignity and reasonable payment.

“That was the judgement that was made, some people will clearly say that was paid too much, but I think some of the people who are complaining about the scale of the payments are those who are demanding the swiftest action on changing the personnel of the police service, so I don’t think they can have it both ways.”

Sinn Fein policing board member Alex Maskey said: “I think that the vast amount of money that has been paid in severance was never necessary whenever you are talking about some individuals going away with half-a-million pounds.

“I think some people will rightly think that is a huge amount of money.

“Families who lost anybody in the conflict would not have remotely thought about getting that type of money.”

However, Ulster Unionist policing board member Basil McCrea said the payments were necessary.