GARDA SUPERINTENDENTS have called on Minister for Justice and Defence Alan Shatter to fill vacant superintendents posts, saying more than 10 per cent of positions are vacant, with some Garda districts now being run without a senior officer in charge.
Association of Garda Superintendents president Supt Jim Smith said there were 21 superintendent posts that were either vacant or about to become vacant.
“Superintendents are central to the organisation in a district and it is very important for the efficient running of the district that a superintendent is in charge,” Supt Smith said at the association’s annual conference in Westmanstown, west Dublin, yesterday.
He made his remarks speaking to the media outside the conference, which is conducted in closed session.
While his members were coping with the vacancies and understood the situation resulted from the poor state of the public finances, “planning for filling these vacancies should begin immediately”.
