THE ASSOCIATION representing more than 12,000 rank-and-file gardaí has described as a “recipe for disaster” the revelation that at least 500 members will retire from the force before the end of the year.
The figure is about double the average annual rate of Garda retirements.
The Garda Representative Association said Minister for Justice Alan Shatter must immediately lift the recruitment embargo on the Garda if a serious policing deficit is to be avoided.
Association president Damien McCarthy said the Garda had already lost numbers from its 14,500 peak and that losing so many more in one year would have a detrimental impact on policing.
“Nobody has properly analysed or stress-tested the impact of this on the front-line policing that our members provide to the public,” he said.
“We are seeing the retirements are coming from all ranks, all places across the country and from uniformed members and those in specialist units.”
He believed maintaining the recruitment moratorium at a time of such large numbers of retirements would not only adversely impact policing now but would also lead to a succession ofdifficulties in the years ahead.
Mr Shatter and his Cabinet colleagues could begin hiring recruits again in order to minimise the depletion in Garda numbers. Some 300 would-be recruits had already begun the process of joining the force when the public sector recruitment moratorium was introduced.
“Around 100 of those have been through a lot of the application process and are simply awaiting their letters to start, so they could be processed,” he said.
Mr McCarthy made his comments after Mr Shatter revealed in reply to a written Dáil question that 500 gardaí are due to retire by the end of this year.
He also said that 40 more had signalled their intent to retire early next year.
All Garda members can retire at any time from the age of 50, or when they have reached 30 years of service. Members can stay on if they wish until they are 60.
“The reality is that the Garda Síochána is going to have to manage with reduced resources,” Mr Shatter said.
Arising from this, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan was reviewing all aspects of the force’s “policing model” to maximise the return from his more limited resources.
This review included where personnel were deployed and what Garda stations were in operation.
“Clearly a reduction in public opening hours in some Garda stations, and the closure of other Garda stations, will be issues that the Garda Commissioner will have to address as part of the review.”
“He may well have to consider whether, in appropriate cases, a better policing service could be delivered to a local community by having Garda members out on patrol rather than in a station.”
More members are leaving the force than usual because if they retire before the end of February they will retire on full pensions.
If they wait until after that date, their pensions will be cut in line with pay cuts across the public service in recent years.
Cost-cutting plans to reduce the force from 14,500 to 13,000 by the end of 2014 were agreed by the previous government as part of Ireland’s deal with the EU and IMF.