GS opening statement to Oireachtas

GRA STATEMENT TO THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE, HOME AFFAIRS & MIGRATION

On behalf of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), I want to thank you and this Joint Committee for the invitation to make our submission on a number of policing matters. Our submission will primarily focus on all matters relating to the brief given, plus a number of other issues of deep concern to our membership and what we believe affects the safe delivery of a policing service that meets the needs of the public we serve.

Firstly, we will address the ongoing crisis in Recruitment and Retention. Garda management’s publication of the Report entitled ‘Transforming An Garda Síochána 2018-2024’ just last week made one glaring and obvious omission in that it failed to address the issue of inadequate numbers in our force and also failed to address any failures over the past seven years in this respect, nor did it offer any recommendations or solutions as to how this issue can be resolved.

During the term that this Report refers to, we have gone from a situation where we had almost 15,000 gardaí to just over 14,000, and this is at a time where the Irish population has exploded by 500,000. Both the Government and the Commissioner himself have admitted in recent months that this number should be far greater. We at the Garda Representative Association believe that this number should be somewhere nearer 17,000 to fall in line with similar jurisdictions of comparable size and demographics.

This current recruitment and retention crisis has been on-going for the last five years.

The problem began in 2019, when the Commissioner reduced the planned and approved intake of 800 recruits to 600. The following year 2020, saw the pandemic. Garda Management closed the Garda College until 2021, when recruitment recommenced but in lower numbers. These low number of applications have continued to this day, with just 120 attested in the latest round instead of the promised 200.

In the absence of any meaningful engagement and collaboration with government and associated parties, at the end of 2024 the GRA proposed a number of measures to tackle this crisis, including raising the garda trainee allowance, an increment on the pay of fully trained and attested members, less points on the public pay scale to expedite members to reach an affordable living wage, and an accommodation allowance for large urban areas to help attract new recruits, plus a long service increment and improved pension rewards to encourage longer retention of the experienced members we already have. Unfortunately, these suggestions have been met with a wall of silence to date.

There remains a massive issue with morale within the ranks of An Garda Síochána, with little action being taken to address the issue. The continuous issuing of policies and procedures which members must comply with, and the excessive use of discipline and suspension has resulted in members being in fear of receiving any form of complaint as there is little trust in the discipline process. Sadly, the recently enacted Conduct, Performance and Standards of Professional Behaviour Regulations will do little to dispel this fear. The now infamous bicycle case not only highlighted the excessive use of suspension, but highlights the lack of understanding of how community policing works by senior gardaí. The more recent case in Limerick where a member was cleared of all 22 charges after a near seven-year investigation while languishing on suspension further highlights the fears members face when the perform their duty and complaints and investigations are launched.

Members, the current Operational Policing Model was introduced in 2019 as part of the Government reform program, A Policing Service for Our Future, which morphed from the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. The aim of this model was to modernise AGS, by decentralising decision making, enhancing community engagement, and improving frontline visibility. This has proved to be an unmitigated disaster and is not fit for purpose. This has created ‘super-sized divisions that span across many counties and has starved communities of local stations and local policing. In many ways, Division is the key word here as that is exactly what this Model has caused between our trusted, dedicated members and the public and communities that they serve. Prior to the implementation of the OPM, Ireland possessed the most desired model of Community Policing in the policing world. As a result of the OPM, the local garda has been stripped from the community. Where previously the majority of incidents in country areas were investigated by the local garda, which resulted in increased local knowledge. Now under the OPM most incidents, while investigated, are done so by gardaí stationed miles away with little or no knowledge of the community and no real reason to expand that knowledge. We discuss this further in our Submission and respectfully invite questions but suffice to say that the OPM continues to encounter challenges and fails to deliver on the commitments made.

As for Roads Policing, the Garda Commissioner appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport last year, where he committed to add 75 members to the Road Policing Units in 2024 and a

further 75 in 2025. Despite this, only 23 members were added last year. In February 2025 there was around 620 members attached to Roads Policing. In 2009 that figure was in excess of 1,000.

The last time we appeared before this Committee was back in October 2023 when we outlined many of these same issues. We also spoke of our fears with the lack of proper Public Order training and safety equipment and just one month later we witnessed some of the most shameful riots ever seen on our Capital city, followed by the disturbances in Coolock just months later. Your Committee then published a number of recommendations including, among others:

⚫ That high visibility of gardaí must be maintained with an increased emphasis on recruitment

⚫ An independent pay review body in relation to pay and pensions, including supplementary pension reform

⚫ A re-examination of the 3 County Division Operational Model

⚫ The introduction of comprehensive in-person training, driver training, and the establishment of a pursuit policy.

Simply not enough has been done to address these issues and recommendations in the intervening 18 months.

Members, it was once the situation that the best recruiter for a career in the AGS, were the Gardaí themselves. Sadly, this is no longer the case. Exit interviews carried out by the GRA clearly show serious areas of concern among members who have decided to leave the organisation. These issues in conjunction with the overall feelings of low morale led recently to a vote of no confidence in the Garda Commissioner. Sadly, little has changed since. Denial of low morale and associated issues continue.

Ronan Slevin

General Secretary.