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Irish Sun Opinion Piece - 24th February 2006
Dermot O'Donnell, President, Garda Representative Association
In terms of policing, as is the case in too many sections of Irish society, what the Irish people deserve is not what they are getting. The current Minister for Justice presides over a
dedicated police force bereft of the manpower and resources it desperately needs to carry out its tasks more effectively. For a public concerned by apparent rising crime levels, there is little
comfort in the Ministers current proposals for a Garda Reserve Force.
This force betrays not only the full time Gardai who are dedicated servants of this state but also the needs of the public
who want to see properly trained, fulltime officers on their streets. Recently, this groundswell of opposition to the Ministers farcical proposals has been seen in the first of a series of regional
protest meetings hosted by the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors. We are now sworn to a policy of non-cooperation with this proposed Garda
Reserve. In recent days, our very right to exist as a representative body for our
members has been questioned by an increasingly vexed department which has sought to deny us of they right to
inform our members about upcoming meetings in relation to the Garda reserve. What sort of a message once again does that send out to Gardai on the streets? I'll tell you what kind of message.
It's essentially saying we don't consider your job to be important and, quite frankly, we don't consider you to be a stakeholder in deciding the future of your own profession. By
requesting that we remove anti-Garda Reserve meeting posters, the Department and sadly senior Garda management have shown that they are very badly informed about this most serious of issues.
The events of recent days have of course served to divert attention from the real issue, which is what a disaster this proposed reserve would be for the country. There has been much spin from
the Ministers office in relation to the training which these proposed reserves would receive. If the notion of 120 hours training in order to have almost full Garda powers is the maxim of the
Minister then we are in a worse leadership crisis then we feared. Of course, when you break the 120 hours up its very worrying. A mere 56 hours in training to use force or the effect an arrest for
example. The official side has claimed that any Reserve Garda would be under the supervision of a full time officer to supervise his work. We are over 2000 Gardai short at present, a conservative
figure, so I wonder how the Minister thinks we will be realistically able to carry out this policy? Policing the streets does
not conform to any sort of pre-planned format. Being a Garda means
carrying out decisions, sometimes involving risk, at a moments notice. Is it realistic to compromise our over stretched officers even further by asking them to think for someone else too? What we
need is an optimum number survey to bolster, in a dedicated manner, the number of full time Gardai in this country. The 12 million euro which the Minister also plans to spend on this second rate
Garda Reserve would be far better served upgrading a crumbling fleet, defunct radios and rat infested stations. In addition to manpower, these are the real challenges which we face. The whole notion
of a Garda Reserve flies in the face of common sense when it comes to considering what is needed in Irish policing. In recent days, the Minister has admitted that he will need to engage with the
representative associations on this issue. If he wishes to meet with us to discuss a sensible way forward for an Garda Siochana, then our door is always open. As for the Garda Reserve? Forget about
it.
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