ASSOCIATION OF GARDA SERGEANTS AND INSPECTORS: CONFERENCE:GARDA SERGEANTS and inspectors have urged the Government to take action to halt the record number of Garda members leaving the force at a time when the threat from dissident republicans was growing.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said the retirement rate was now more than twice that of recent years.
It called on Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to guarantee Garda members that their gratuity payments on retirement will not be taxed. Such a gesture, it said, might result in those who were now entitled to retire early staying on in the force. Many of those who retired last year did so because they feared their tax-free gratuity, of 1.5 times their finishing salary, was about to be taxed.
AGSI president Dan Hanley told delegates at the opening session of their annual conference in Galway last night that the departure of 800 Garda members last year, most of them through early retirement, had resulted in the loss of a “huge reservoir of experience” and a heavier workload for those who remained.
The spike in early retirements was happening as recruitment to the force had stopped. This meant Garda numbers were falling at a time when personnel and expertise were needed to combat increased subversive activity.
“It could, therefore, not be a worse time to be running down the numbers in An Garda Síochána and starving it of resources,” Mr Hanley said.
Mr Ahern last night rejected that claim. He said Garda numbers were now at a record high of almost 14,500. He insisted there had been “no taking the foot off the pedal” in the fight against the subversive threat.
Mr Hanley said the force’s strength was falling after a year in which Garda members had seen their remuneration cut by the income and pension levies and a pay cut. “The total reduction is in the order of 16 per cent; savage by any standards,” Mr Hanley said in his conference address to Mr Ahern.
AGSI wanted to be included in pay talks from which they are excluded because they are a representative organisation rather than a trade union. It was also demanding a reversal of the policy that saw its members’ remuneration reduced and wanted vacancies filled by promotions.
Members were angered by the remuneration cuts, which had made 2009 the most difficult year in the 32 years of AGSI’s existence. The anger was compounded by Government’s approach to minimising cuts for higher civil servants. “You factored in their bonus before making the cuts, thereby minimising the hit they had to take. That’s some notion of fairness and equality,” Mr Hanley said in his remarks to Mr Ahern.
Expenditure cuts meant the force’s fleet of vehicles was not being replenished with new cars. This was hampering the Garda’s ability to respond to emergencies and was putting at risk the lives of Garda members driving old cars with mileage of over 100,000km.
Mr Hanley told delegates that Ireland now had more than 100 head shops nationwide, with Dublin having the highest concentration in Europe. The Government needed to tackle the issue, particularly in light of recent high profile deaths in the UK of people who had consumed products from the shops.
Mr Hanley also said “less than 100 people” had blackened Limerick’s name for years through crime. It was now imperative that the Government support Limerick people by pressing ahead with regeneration.