Call for funds to prevent EU presidency protest violence

IRELAND’S presidency of the EU next year will be marred by violence if the gardaí are not given more money and if management doesn’t plan for the expected protests, a top garda representative said yesterday.

George Maybury of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said the garda overtime budget would run out in October, leaving the force with no money to prepare for the presidency.

The AGSI general secretary said gardaí would be facing thousands of demonstrators, some of whom would be determined to cause a confrontation with gardaí similar to that at the EU Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2001.

Mr Maybury said: “Ultimately, if we don’t resource the force properly we are going to face serious difficulties if all these various groups travel into this country from abroad.

“Obviously, we’ve all seen the major disturbances and major injuries to police and demonstrators in Sweden and it can happen here.”

Mr Maybury told the AGSI annual conference in Galway a review carried out in Sweden after the demonstrations there found police were not trained or equipped to deal with the protests.

“I’m saying to the Government and garda management: we need the resources and we need to plan. We need the budget to prepare for this. If we don’t get the budget we could run into trouble.”

Mr Maybury said gardaí should build up communications with all protest groups before Ireland assumes the presidency in January.

But he said some groups, such as the organisers of the Reclaim The Streets protest in May, which led to assault charges against gardaí and public order charges against demonstrators, do not communicate with the authorities.

He said some planning had taken place, including the testing of equipment for public order units and intelligence gathering.

Mr Maybury said the force’s overtime budget had been slashed by almost 25% this year and will be exhausted by October.

He said: “One can envisage serious financial problems towards the end of the year given that huge chunks of the budget have already been utilised following the murder of Mr [Kieran] Keane and in policing the many demonstrations connected with the war in Iraq.”

Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne said he monitored expenditure regularly and the force was within budget.

“So far so good. I’m not looking at a financial crisis towards the end of the year,” he said.