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Garda Reserve - PJ Stone, General Secretary
Irish Examiner Opinion Piece Wednesday 8th March 2005
Criminality in Ireland has taken an insidious turn. This is a fact borne out both by crime figures and by public insecurity which has reacted to the figures with understandable alarm.
Gardai on the front line in our cities and towns are all too aware of the extents to which today's criminals will go to. Firearms and other lethal weapons are increasingly common. Gardai on the
other hand do their job in spite of the resources they have, not because of them. The lack of a proper radio system, fleet of squad cars or protective clothing of any sort has left them in a
vulnerable position. It is sad to report that morale amongst rank and file Gardai is at a very low ebb.
Minister McDowell's current proposals to introduce a squadron of part time, poorly
trained Garda Reserves not only compounds the problems of the force but also of the policing needs of the Irish people. Over recent weeks, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the
Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) have held a series of regional information meetings to highlight this appallingly poor piece of government policy which we believe to be
unworkable.
The Minister has released details in recent weeks which he believes will assuage the fears of the major Garda associations and those of the public. It is said in the proposals that
any proposed 'reservists' will have "carefully selected duties and powers." Of course we have precious few specifics as to what these duties will be. The Minister has contended that
our issue that the proposed reserve represents policing on the cheap is false. The figures, sadly, hold up our argument. This recruitment of unpaid reservists can only be described as policing on the
cheap. Our fulltime members are also well familiar with cut-price policing, starved as they are of the functioning equipment which will allow them to do their job properly. Of course, they are also
starved of manpower. International standards have an average of 400 police officers per 100,000. If the Minister succeeds with his long delayed plan to bolster the force to 14,000, the bare minimum
we need, then we will still have far less Gardai then we need. Approximately 300 per 100,000. Why should the Irish people tolerate this substandard resourcing? The government has talked about a
budget increase for Garda funding but this has all been spent on wages and overtime and not on capital investment.
The Reserve will do absolutely nothing to adequately bolster this pitiful
trend. With only minimal training, just one weekend on the proper use of force for example, they will also be only expected to work a minimum of just four hours per week. The use of reservists in
other jurisdictions has been cited by the Minister as a key reason why he has sought to introduce them here. Of course, as is frequent with this Minister, we are only hearing one side of the story.
In Scotland as of April this year all special constables, as reservists there are known, will be paid a full salary with full pension rights after many years of wrangling over their anomalous
situation. This is being done at great costs to their taxpayer. In New South Wales in Australia in 2002, the administration brought in legislation to disband the special constables as it was felt by
police leaders, they were exceeding their authority and were not accountable with the resulting civil cases being settled at great cost to the taxpayer. In fact in nearly all the of the jurisdictions
so far mentioned by Michael McDowell as examples of how the reservists are working well, they are in process of either doing away with them altogether or upgrading them to full officer status through
recruitment and training.
In England, it has been found that full time officers now spend a great percentage of their time sorting out difficulties that have arisen as result of special
constables making wrongful arrests our acting beyond their remit. So while, yes, the Minister is correct in his assertion that reservists do exist in other jurisdictions he is plainly mistaken in his
analysis of how they have performed. The fashion in which he wishes to introduce this reserve will compound this gross error of judgement and we feel it is unjust to foist this on the public without
proper consultation right across the
board. It is a fact, however the Department of Justice tries to window dress it, that a Garda Reserve is an ill-thought out policing band-aid for a service
starved of the leadership it really requires.
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