Garda recruitment must be ‘accelerated’ to fill retirement gaps

Garda recruitment must be immediately accelerated as the numbers of new recruits will not fill gap left by those retiring, the head of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has warned.

Ciarán O’Neill, president of the GRA, said the association planned to advise the Minister for Justice to accelerate the Garda recruitment programme with urgency.

Speaking on Newstalk, O’Neill warned that the 600 new gardaí due this year would not fill the gap left by those retiring.

“Recruitment could be accelerated, there’s only 600 new gardaí proposed for this year, but that won’t even hit the number that must retire by June next year, which is 800, or 1,500 could retire by the end of this year if they wanted to,” said Mr O’Neill. “So the 600 will not even fill the gaps already there.

“Capacity (at Templemore) could be increased by another 600 a year if we made a few slight alterations.”

Mr O’Neill added that pay, resources and a mechanism to deal with pay claims would be on the agenda for the meeting. “We’re the only body in society with no way to make pay claims.

“We don’t have enough resources on the street, we don’t have enough members on the front line policing the community, we’ve been highlighting this since the moratorium.

“We’re asking the government to honour their side of the Haddington Road Agreement, we’ve honoured our side, the government still hasn’t. The review has not been completed. They must stick to their side of the agreement before we can consider bringing Lansdowne Road to our members.”

On the issue of the gangland killings he said: "Members in the north inner city are having to cope with being 140 members short in the last four years, that makes the job difficult. In every other job if there's a person gone or sick, they are replaced by a temp or agency staff, that doesn't happen in an Garda Síochána the person who remains has to do the two jobs."

He said the GRA welcomed the Rapid Response Unit, “but it will take time before it is installed, probably late October or November”.

Sinn Féin’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said there was a need for “in your face policing” on the ground in Dublin’s inner city.

“The gardaí must be given every single resource they need to create a feeling of basic safety in the community,” said Ms McDonald. “There needs to be greater visibility of garda officers in the community, to create a sense of safety and well being. People are afraid bringing their children to school, going to the shops. They’re afraid of going for a pint in the local pub.”

She said some people viewed the recent killings like a soap opera. “This is real life, people are frightened.”

When asked about the Special Criminal Court, Ms McDonald said that while she thought it was “problematic” and that it “could not go in the morning”, any changes could only be done in consultation and if alternative protections were provided for jurors and witnesses.