Call for all gardaí to be given stab-proof vests without delay

All gardaí should be equipped with stab-proof vests as a matter of urgency, a senior Garda representative has said.

Rank-and-file gardaí are due to receive the first of thousands of stab-proof vests this month with all 11,000 members due to receive them by the end of June.

Sgt Willie Gleeson, senior representative in Munster for the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), said the roll-out should be speeded up to prevent a recurrence of the incident on New Year's Eve in Fermoy, Co Cork, when Sgt John Liston was stabbed in the stomach.

"We have had assurances that anti-stabbing and anti-ballistic vests would start to roll out from January. These items are required urgently and they were required a long time ago," Sgt Gleeson told RTÉ's Drivetime programme.

"It's fair to say that if Sgt Liston had been wearing an anti-stab vest he wouldn't be in hospital at the moment. We need our members on the streets to be properly equipped and properly protected."

Sgt Liston was stabbed when he went to disarm Trevor Clancy (26), who had been refused entry into a nightclub. He remains in a stable condition in Cork University Hospital. Mr Clancy later stabbed himself to death.

Sgt Gleeson also said it was time for the force to seriously consider using pepper sprays, Taser guns or retractable batons to prevent injuries to officers.

"We are an unarmed police force and we have been primarily an unarmed police force, except for detectives, since the foundation of An Garda Síochána.

"Unfortunately, times have changed. People are resorting to carrying knives and carrying blades. Our members up and down the country are coming across people with baseball bats, with slash hooks, with hurleys, with hammers and all kinds of knives and blades. Society unfortunately has changed and the Government and the police force have to change with it."

Stab-proof vests were first provided to gardaí on a pilot basis last year in Tallaght. A thousand will be provided to officers in January and February with 2,500 being provided in March, April and May and the rest in June.