Gardaí want right to strike, better pay and bigger pensions to address recruitment ‘crisis’

Members of the Garda should be given the right to strike to allow them better negotiate for improved conditions, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has said. It believes if the right to strike was formally granted, it could be subject to certain controls, or a “code of practice”, including arrangements to provide policing cover in the event a strike took place.

At present, it is a crime for anyone in the Garda to organise a strike, though individual gardaí can decide of their own volition to withdraw their service, all on the same day, resulting in a strike in all but name.

AGSI general secretary Antoinette Cunningham said a formal right to strike could help avoid the “vulnerabilities” that arise in a withdrawal of service scenario. A right to strike would come with clear rules and conditions, and would allow Garda management to plan, meaning they would not be left in a “lack of control position”. Furthermore, communities would not be left with a feeling of “unease and unrest” when a less structured “withdrawal of service” occurred, or was threatened.

Both AGSI and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) have also called for increases in Garda pay and better pensions in a bid to attract more recruits into the force and retain those already serving. Appearing before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice on Tuesday, Ms Cunningham, said long-service pay increments should be boosted in a bid to stem rising resignations from the Garda.

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GRA general secretary Ronan Slevin told the committee while the allowance for Garda recruits was recently increased, from €184 per week to €305, it was still inadequate. He added when recruits graduated from the Garda College, Templemore, and their salary began increasing in increments, that process was too slow, leaving them with inadequate salaries for years.

“We were promised 1,000 trainees [this year] and once again that number will fall considerably short, with a figure of just over 600, which is nearly 40 per cent short of targets,” said Mr Slevin, who represents almost 11,000 rank-and-file gardaí in a 14,000-strong force.

[ Garda to offer better pay for new recruits in effort to increase and retain staff ]

Addressing inadequate pensions and pay was an urgent issue as age-related retirements were due to spike over the next decade, while Garda resignations were increased each year and were due to reach a record 150 this year. There was already a recruitment and retention “crisis”.

Mr Slevin said while being a Garda member was “still a hugely fulfilling vocation”, numbers in the force must be increased, especially at a time when gardaí were dealing with “public gatherings by groups holding extreme views” and “hate filled” or violent situations, often when they were not properly trained for that work.

Ms Cunningham told the committee hearing being a Garda member “does require resilience tenacity in a sense of vocation”. The trade-off had always been “a job with great security, a good pension and the ability to retire earlier as a recognition of the attrition attached to the role”, though this was now being eroded.

She added the current narrative was that recruitment problems resulted from the pandemic – when the Garda College closed – though “this is simply not true”. Numbers applying to join the Garda had “dropped dramatically in the last 20 years” with the most recent recruitment competition, in 2022, “attracting under 5,000 applicants”.

Ms Cunningham also said the manner the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) operated was having a serious impact on morale in the force. When allegations of wrongdoing were made against individual Garda members and Gsoc investigated, those inquiries could take years.

Members of the force were “extremely demoralised” by this and what they perceived as a “lack of accountability” by the Garda watchdog. The burden of record keeping and other administration was now too great, with even a case of a minor road traffic crash, with no crime suspected, requiring significant records to be created.