Last Wednesday, thousands of frontline public servants including gardaí, nurses, fire-fighters and prison officers paraded through the streets of Dublin warning government to keep its hands off their allowances and overtime.

Around €2bn of the €20bn public sector paybill goes to pay the state's overtime and allowances bill. But the vast bulk of these payments are made to uniformed frontline public servants – so much so that they make up a considerable proportion of their income, a third in the case of gardaí and prison officers.

This has put such allowances firmly in finance minister Brian Lenihan's sights as he seeks to cut €1.3bn off the public payroll.

Whatever about overtime, which is largely down to the demands of a 24/7 service, the alliance's claim that allowances are part of pay is to a significant extent true.

The promotional path for nurses, gardaí and most uniformed public servants is very narrow and there are few mechanisms to reward workers who acquire extra skills.

Traditionally, this has been resolved by granting additional allowances rather than another job.

But some of these allowances have become moribund over time while others are clearly a capitulation to industrial pressure. Below we list the main allowances of the various groups which have come to Lenihan's notice.

Prison Officers

Prison officers are the 'frontline' group with most to lose from government cutbacks, with over €1 in every €3 they earn coming from allowances and overtime.

While their average basic weekly pay is over €900 a week, overtime allowances push this up to close to €1,300 a week – making prison officers among the highest paid public servants.

Rent allowance is one of the most lucrative payments. Worth €4,451 a year to each officer, it costs the exchequer €13.5m. In the past, the job came with accommodation provided, often beside the prison.

When this became unnecessary, a rent allowance was introduced to compensate officers for the loss. While this has no relevance today, prison officers have held on to the allowance.

Other allowances enjoyed by our custodians include an 'operational allowance' worth 8%, a uniform allowance, a boot allowance and an escort-duty allowance.

Gardaí

A bewildering array of allowances costing €215m last year – €300 per week per garda – as well as overtime costing €115m (€109 per week per member) brings an average garda's weekly income to €1,208.

Gardaí also get a rent allowance of €4,300 a year. This cost almost €60m last year.

While the Frontline Alliance makes much of the '24/7' service its members provide, they are well compensated for it. For example, gardaí are paid an unsocial hours allowance for working between 6pm and 8am, and an extra day's pay for working a Sunday. These cost almost €100m last year, yielding around €10,000 a year per garda.

A clerical allowance of over €5,000 a year is paid to gardaí confined to desk work, primarily in compensation for not being able to claim the above unsocial hours' allowances.

More minor allowances include a uniform maintenance allowance (€4.39 a week), plain clothes allowance (€12.21 a week), boot allowance (€2.93 a week), a cycle allowance (€2.53 a week) and a detective allowance (€28.19 a week). Juvenile liaison and community relations gardaí are paid an extra €28.19 a week.

Policing the Gaeltacht areas attracts an additional €3,500 allowance while those working on the islands get an extra €1,500 a year.

Allowances for extra duties or skill sets which cannot be encompassed within the hierarchical grade and pay structure of An Garda Síochána are also paid. Recipients include ministerial drivers, who get an extra 40% – around €19,000 a year.

Gardaí working in the change management unit get an allowance of €6,500 a year. In the air support unit they get €5,000, PSV (public service vehicle) inspectors get €5,000, crime scene examiners get €3,000, radio section officers get €5,300, technical bureau officers receive €5,400 after five years, water unit gardaí receive €5,050 and a welfare officer gets €7,800.

While secure pensions paying 50% of an index-linked salary for life is a major perk for all public servants, gardaí have the additional perk of being able to retire at 50 on a full pension – a benefit which Colm McCarthy estimated would cost 48% of a garda's salary to fund.

Soldiers

Soldiers receive allowances to compensate them for lack of overtime, which is considered anathema to the military ethos.

Military service allowance, ranging from €44 a week for privates to €129 a week for a sergeant, is now a part of basic pay.

Overseas allowance is the next best way for soldiers to boost their income. It pays €58.35 a day for a private. There is an additional €23.58 a day paid if the mission is armed, like the ongoing deployment in Chad, where almost 800 troops are currently serving. This is the biggest single cost to the exchequer and came in at €24m last year, nearly half the total €60m cost of soldiers' allowances.

Border-duty allowance is worth €101 a week but has come under pressure recently due to the ongoing success of the peace process.

Security-duty allowance ranges from €55.66 a day for 24 hours to €111 if the duty is on a Sunday.

Army rangers' allowance pays €158 a week, explosive ordnance €97.44 a week and the search and rescue division allowance €95 a week. There is a daily diving allowance of €53 while soldiers with a proficiency in a foreign language can get up to €55 a week.

Musicians in the army band get just €2.38 a day extra. The editor of the army magazine Cosantoir enjoys an allowance of €32 a week. With a private on a maximum weekly wage of €583 and a sergeant major on €943 a week, the various allowances can add up to 12.5% to the salary. For example, allowances can bring a private's maximum income to €650 a week.

Teachers

On top of maximum basic of €63,360, albeit after 25 years in the classroom, a large proportion of teachers are paid a special duties allowance of €3,967 a year and a smaller number are paid an 'assistant principal allowance' of €8,868, for taking on extra duties.

The controversial supervision and substitution allowance, which compensates teachers for standing in for staff out sick and supervising the school yard pays €50.34 an hour.

Even though a degree is a prerequisite of the job, teachers are paid an extra €1,299 a year for holding an honours higher diploma in education and an extra €5, 177 for an honours degree.

They also have access to a large array of allowances, including a rural science teachers' allowance and 'itinerant domestic science teacher's allowance' both of which attract an extra €1,939 a year.

Like gardaí, teachers in the Gaeltacht get an allowance of €3,224 while those teaching on the islands get an extra €1,939. Teachers in comprehensive schools get a 'special allowance' of €2,601 while those with 35 years' service get an extra €2,949 a year for sticking it out.

On top of a guaranteed, recession-proof pension, teachers have the additional perk in that they can retire at 55 after 35 years' service – a benefit which would cost 31% of salary to fund.

Nurses

Nurses have access to overtime, though it is limited. However, they do receive an unsocial hours allowance – for example they are paid time plus one sixth for working between 6pm and 8am – a concession which the HSE claims would save almost €100m a year if cut.

Nurse allowances are essentially for extra skills which cannot be encompassed by a pay structure which has limited room for promotion.

A staff nurse's basic maximum is €46,150 while a 'dual-qualified' nurse can reach a maximum of €48,130 after 13 years in the job.

Those working in A&E, intensive care, and other special areas are paid a 'location allowance' of €1,956 a year while nurses holding qualifications to work in specialised areas are paid a 'qualification allowance' of €2, 938 a year.

Other additional annual allowances paid to the country's 40,000 nurses include a special weekend allowance of €3,132 a year and a community allowance of €5,223 to psychiatric nurses. Public health nurses can get an 'island inducement allowance' of €1,859.

Theatre nurses who are on call/stand-by to participate in emergency operations are paid €44.57 a day for weekdays and €77 for a Sunday. Assisting in an operation of two to three hours attracts a payment of €66.84 but if the operation is performed after 10pm they get €44 an hour.

Doctors

Though flying well under the cutbacks radar, the country's junior doctors and hospital consultants are arguably in receipt of the largest amount of overtime and allowances.

Junior doctors, for example, who have a basic ranging from €58,000 for a house officer to €82,000 for a specialist register, can double that through overtime.

While considerable progress has been made with the junior doctors to reduce their gargantuan overtime bill (over €200m for 4,000 junior doctors) the Irish Medical Organisation has now lodged a 20% pay increase to compensate for the loss in overtime.

Junior doctors have also resisted efforts to cut back on a paid lunch break, a living-out allowance and a training allowance of over €3,000 a year, all of which cost the HSE €100m last year.

While their consultant colleagues have finally agreed a new contract which pays €240,000 a year to a public-service-only consultant, on-call and weekend payments will easily bring that to over €300,000.

Also, a second contract with a lesser basic salary allows consultants to treat (and charge) private patients in public hospitals. This effectively allows them a second more lucrative income facilitated by the exchequer – the biggest public-service perk of all.