Appointment of 28 gardaí to senior roles approved

The Government has approved the appointment of 28 senior officers to the Garda to fill vacancies in key areas.

The move comes a fortnight after Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan warned there was a “profound risk” to the standard of policing in the Republic’s because so many senior posts were unfilled.

The Government has now announced 10 Garda members currently working as superintendents are to be promoted to chief superintendents. Eighteen members who are currently inspectors will be promoted to superintendent.

Ms O’Sullivan two weeks ago said 18 chief superintendent and 26 superintendent promotions were needed.

However, Policing Authority chair Josephine Feehily told Ms O'Sullivan while she supported the Garda's request for additional resources, the level of appointments sought "seemed on the high side".

The new promotions have been announced just before a new Garda appointments process in introduced. Under this system, the Policing Authority will have a role in the promotion process to higher ranks.

Security sources said the authority would not be in a position to begin its work in the Garda promotions area until the final months of the year.

The same sources pointed out the officers promoted had already secured that right under a competitive process within the Garda. They have been on a waiting list to be promoted when Garda headquarters got Government approval.

Policing at risk

A fortnight ago, Ms O’Sullivan warned the high number of vacancies in the Garda was now putting policing at risk.

Ms O’Sullivan said there were “profound risks” to the “continued effective delivery of policing and security services from the current leadership gaps” in the Garda.

She pointed out, for example, while the ranks order of the Garda stated there should be 390 Inspectors across the force, there were currently 240.

She added that a “cohesive and adequately resourced management structure” was needed to manage daily police work and also undertake what she termed “the biggest reform programme in the 94-year history” of the Garda.

Ms Feehily said at the time when it came to reforming and managing the Garda "supervision leaderships is only part of the discussion" and the Garda also needed better procedures.

The authority will run promotions competitions within the Garda to fill vacancies at the rank of superintendent and higher. However, before it assumes that function, Garda regulations governing selection competitions need to be amended.

The Department of Justice said as part of that process the Garda Commissioner, Policing Authority and the Garda staff associations must be consulted as per the Garda Síochána Act 2015.

“It is necessary to take the time to ensure that stakeholders are adequately consulted and that various legal issues are teased out to ensure that the regulations are sufficiently robust to withstand any legal challenges. Nothing would be gained from rushing this work,” the department said.

Other security sources said because the authority had only begun operating since the start of the year it was still building capacity, adding the appointment function was expected to be assumed by it in the months ahead.