Dublin City Council spent more than €15.5 million on overtime costs last year.
The council said 2,814 staff received overtime payments last year, and environment and transportation staff, such as road workers and street cleaners, accounted for more than €5.7 million of the bill.
Firefighters accounted for €4.4 million, while housing and community staff made up €3.4 million of the costs.
The overtime bill for last year is slightly down on 2016, which was €16.4 million, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The culture, recreation and economic services department accounted for €1.3 million.
The chief executive department (€124,168), finance department (€50,713), human resources (€33,374) and law department (€14,141) also featured in the list of overtime costs.
Dublin City Council said the working of overtime is approved only when there is no alternative and when circumstances arise that make it essential.
“The need for overtime typically arises in the delivery of services in operational departments, including emergency services,” a spokeswoman said. “These services are delivered by a range of council employees in a variety of grades.”
The overtime bill for the council is 4 per cent of its total payroll costs.
Dublin councillors approved a budget of €917 million last November for running the capital this year, the largest city budget since 2009 and €54 million higher than in 2017. More than €142 million was set aside to provide homeless services this year.
More scrutiny
Independent councillor Mannix Flynn called for more scrutiny of overtime payments.
“I think when you have an emergency situation and you have staff from the fire brigade attending issues, you can envisage that and you put by these contingency plans and emergency budgets. But everything is being rolled into this overtime budget,” he said. “I don’t want to see overtime being used as a topping-up of a salary and this is what happened during the bust.”
Cllr Flynn said he believed Dublin City Council was not managing the city as well as it could be.
“I’m not confident and I’m certainly not convinced about where this money is being spent and who it’s being spent on. I’ve called for an absolute breakdown of exactly where this money is being spent and where is the overtime incurred. I want to know who the top earners of overtime were.”
