Drew Harris describes no confidence vote by GRA as ‘kick in the teeth’ but will not resign

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has described as a “kick in the teeth” and “a heavy blow” the vote by rank-and-file gardaí to express no confidence in him by a majority of 99 per cent - but he has insisted he will not resign.

He believed the vote, by members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), was deliberately personalised. Minister for Justice Helen McEntee echoed that view, saying Mr Harris had hers and the Government’s full support. She said the GRA must now “get back around the table” for talks on new Garda rosters, but said the rostering row was an internal Garda matter that she could not intervene in.

The Policing Authority, which recruits senior Garda officers and is the force’s main watchdog agency, also issued a statement of “full and unwavering confidence” in Mr Harris. The leadership team of the Garda, which is comprised of its most senior officers and civilian managers, issued a statement to all Garda members saying it had full confidence in Mr Harris.

While expressing bitter disappointment in the GRA for running the ballot, Mr Harris reiterated his determination to end the pandemic-related emergency Garda roster from November 6th. Speaking to the media in the hours after the GRA ballot result emerged, he completely ruled out pausing his plan to allow for more talks.

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That is despite the fact the dispute between him and rank and file gardai is largely centred on those rosters plans. It means Mr Harris is now on a collision course with the GRA in that regard, with relations been the two now having deteriorated at a rapid rate.

The association, which represents about 11,000 rank-and-file gardai in 14,000-strong Garda force, said the sheer scale of the turn-out and the number of those who voted no confidence in the commissioner had “shocked” even it. The motion of no confidence was carried by a majority of 98.7 per cent. Of the 10,802 GRA members polled, some 116 voted confidence in Mr Harris and 9,013 voted no confidence. The turn-out was 84.5 per cent, which was a record for the GRA by a very considerable margin.

Brendan O’Connor, president of the GRA, believed it was now clear the commissioner had lost touch with rank and file gardaí, saying the vote was a “critical moment” for the Garda force and a “crisis” in policing. The GRA would hold a delegate conference in two weeks in Kilkenny where it would plan its next steps in the worsening, mainly roster-related, industrial relations dispute.

GRA general secretary, Rory Slevin, said Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Justice Helen McEntee “must listen to ordinary frontline rank and file gardaí” because Mr Harris had now “lost of the confidence of the overwhelming majority of the Garda force”. The Government needed to “urgently intervene and make changes to help improve overall employee wellbeing and morale”.

Mr Harris very strongly rejected the suggestion by Mr O’Connor that the Garda was “in crisis”. “We’re not in a crisis, it’s wrong to describe it as a crisis but many things the GRA describe as a crisis. It’s hard to know what’s not a crisis for the GRA.”

While he strongly believed the vote was directed at him personally, he hoped his background, as a former PSNI officer, was not a factor, and he did not think that was the case. Asked would he consider resigning, he said “the answer is an emphatic ‘no’”. He added his situation was “not remotely comparable” to that of former PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne, who has just resigned from the PSNI after a data breach.

But he insisted the four days on-four off pandemic roster was only suitable for periods of flat policing demand. He needed the Garda to revert to the pre-pandemic rosters because they were designed to better meet surges in demand and this was vital amid calls for higher visibility policing. He said the pandemic roster, with 12-hour shifts, was expensive and resulted in the loss of about 60 hours of policing per Garda member per year, or 695,000 hours in total per year.