An Garda Síochána overpaid officers and civilian staff to the tune of €4.25 million in salary payments over the past three years.
At the end of last year, the balance still outstanding from overpayments had risen to more than €2.8 million.
Internal audit committee papers said the majority of the cases were linked to sickness absence, with late notification of pay changes identified as a root cause.
One briefing note said the force had discovered cases where its overpayments unit “did not receive any notification” that staff had been overpaid.
Another said a manual process had left “too many opportunities for errors,” according to records that were released under FOI.
The new figures show that €1 million in overpayments were made to 487 gardaí last year, an average of around €2,100 per person.
A further €406,000 was overpaid to 204 civilian staff, roughly €2,000 each.
The amount of money recouped from gardaí last year was just €549,000 with another €174,000 recovered from garda staff.
The end-of-year balance of overpayments for gardaí was €2.18 million with a further €665,000 owed by civilian employees.
That year-end balance has risen steadily over the past three years from €2.29 million in 2023 to €2.53 million in 2024, before rising again to €2.84 million last year.
Documents from An Garda Síochána’s audit and risk committee said around two-thirds of the cases related to illness.