An independent poll conducted on behalf of the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors have revealed that the vast majority of the public believe the Gardai should be adequately resourced before any possible Garda Reserve should be contemplated. This is the view  of the GRA  and AGSI, who are strongly opposed to the notion of a Garda Reserve, a fact they reiterated to the Minister  last week. 
 
The poll, conducted by RED C Research and Marketing, found that 80% of people think the Gardaí should be properly resourced before the Garda Reserve Service is introduced.  It also found that 53% think that the current level of resourcing the Gardaí receive from the Government is quite poor or very poor, while 61% disagree that the Government has done all in its power to tackle crime.
 
The poll  also established that the public do not believe that the full time force is adequately resourced by the current government and that the government had  failed in his pledge to tackle crime, just 11% of those surveyed believing it had performed well in this area. A total of 1002 people, over the age of 18, were surveyed during the course of the poll.
 
The GRA has consistently stated that the Garda Reserve is an unworkable objective, which has been formulated with next year's election in mind, so Garda numbers can be falsely inflated.  It has disputed who proposed the measure in the first place with Minister Michael McDowell saying it was Garda Commissioner yet this has not been confirmed by Noel Conroy.
 
The Association believes that the public deserve a fully trained, properly resourced and professional force to satisfy their policing needs. The findings of this poll confirm that the public are worried by rising crime and want full time police officers to patrol in their areas, over 76% strongly believing that this is not a job to be carried out by poorly trained Garda Reserves.
 
The poll also showed only 47% support for the concept of a fully trained reserve in comparison to a recent poll by the Department of Justice showing 73%. Both Associations called on the Department to publish a full breakdown of their poll which has not been released to date.
 
"These initial findings indicate that the public prefer to have full time Gardai doing the job that they do best, deterring and solving crime," says GRA President Dermot O'Donnell. "It also proves that the public are beginning to realise  how this government has allowed  the  resourcing  of an Garda Siochana to slip  in terms of manpower and equipment. The Minister is not fooling us with his rhetoric on the Garda Reserve and the public won't be fooled either."