GARDAÍ WHO are suffering financially because of recent pay cuts may become vulnerable to corruption if rules around banning them from taking part-timejobs are not relaxed, the group representing rank and filegardaí has said.
General secretary of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) PJ Stone said other countries with poorly paid police forces often experienced a culture ofpolicecorruption. While this had not happened to date with the Garda, the potential for future difficulties existed.
He said it was imperative Garda members not be placed in a position where they could not service debts such as mortgages.
Speaking at the opening of the GRA's three-day annual conference in Limerick, Mr Stone said the obvious difficulties of financial hardship were compounded for gardaí because under their rules of employment they could lose their jobs if they were unable to discharge their civil debts.
When asked if financial difficulties would leave some gardaí vulnerable to corruption, Mr Stone said: "There is always the likelihood. It has been proven in other countries where you pay police forces at a rate of pay which puts them in a vulnerable place, where there is a risk of people being got at, and that's a fact of life."
Garda members had not only had to endure public sector pay cuts. They were also banned from taking some part-time positions to supplement their Garda incomes such as driving a taxi, working in licensed premises or as security guards. While there were some part-time jobs that "would not gel" with being a Garda member, there needed to be some relaxation of the list of posts they were banned from.
GRA president Michael O'Boyce said he saw no difficulty with a garda taking a part-time barman job in the community where he or she served as a garda. He believed the Irish public had confidence in the integrity of the force and that taking some forms of part-time work would not undermine that.
The GRA represents almost 12,000gardaí of the 14,500-strong force. Itsconference will today hear calls for the introduction of mandatory 12-year jail terms for attacks on gardaí. Motions will also be debated around the Garda recruitment moratorium and lack of investment inthe Garda fleet of vehicles. The public sector pay dealwill be debated at length.
Mr Stone and Mr O'Boyce said the GRA national executive had not yet made any recommendation to its members on acceptance or rejection of the public sector pay deal because the association first needed more information on aspects of the deal.
While the GRA had promised earlier this year to outline protest work-to-rule options at its annual conference, the situation in the country had now changed in that a pay deal had at least been formulated.
Presenting delegates with a list of work-to-rule options might only serve to "inflame" the current industrial relations difficulties.
"It's important people get an opportunity to absorb what's in [ the Croke Park deal] before you start offering them options of derailment,"Mr Stone said.
If GRA members decided to reject the deal the association would plan an incremental "campaign of resistance" in relation to pay cuts.
At present, some aspects of the deal that relate to the Garda were vague. The GRA was seeking clarity on issues, such as proposed reforms to rostering, before it could properly gauge the deal's merits.