No vests, batons for gardaí as St Pat’s weekend looms

RANK and file gardaí will be on duty this St Patrick’s weekend — usually their busiest — without basic protective equipment, even though that equipment has been either in storage or on order since the end of last year.

Both the Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said most of their members still had not received the anti-stab ballistic vests or the retractable batons they had been demanding for several years and which were promised to them four months ago.

There is also still no sign of the non-lethal pepper spray which, Chief Inspector Kathleen O’Toole of the Garda Inspectorate said last week, all officers should be trained to use.