Garda chief seeks to relax promotion ban as members retire

GARDA COMMISSIONER Fachtna Murphy has revealed that he has planned further meetings with Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to see whether a moratorium on Garda promotions can be lifted to allow senior positions within the force to be filled.

The commissioner said the Government had agreed to one such lifting of the moratorium recently which allowed for the promotion of 10 officers to superintendent rank, three to the rank of chief superintendent and two to assistant commissioner level.

“The reality is that there is a moratorium in place and it is a challenge, but I’m in discussions with . . . Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to see what more leeway I can get in terms of the moratorium,” he said.

The commissioner acknowledged that several senior officers had taken early retirement this year, creating vacancies, and he did not discount the possibility that there may have to be a doubling up, with some officers having to take on added responsibilities.

It’s widely accepted that many officers have opted for early retirement amid fears that the December budget will see the Government introduce a tax on the gratuity payable to officers upon retirement.

The commissioner said the number who have retired or are due to retire by the end of the year will be about 700 – considerably more than have retired in recent years, when the figure averaged between 300 and 400.

However, he said the acceleration of recruitment in recent years would stand to the force, and while some 43 per cent of the force will have less than five years’ experience, he was confident that new training methods and structures would help offset the loss of experienced officers.

The commissioner was speaking at Cork City Hall, where he launched the Cork city implementation of the national model of community policing at a function hosted by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Dara Murphy.

“When I launched the new national model of community policing last January, I emphasised that it had been developed to reinvigorate and restructure our community policing function, and to build on the success of existing good community policing practice. Members of An Garda Síochána here in Cork have worked diligently to build and maintain partnerships with the community, listening to and responding to their concerns. Those are the kind of relationships on which this new model is built,” he said.