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.

In December, the Department of Justice said it had:

* Ordered 1,500 ballistic vests, with 800 delivered and the balance due in January.

* Ordered 11,000 anti-stab ballistic vests, with delivery due to start with 1,000 each in January and February, and 2,500 each month thereafter until completion.

* A total of 10,000 retractable batons in stock for issue, aligned with the training schedule.

A spokeswoman for the department said responsibility for protective equipment had been handed over to the gardaí, and the Garda Commissioner had taken over as the accounting officer.

However, according to Willie Gleeson of the AGSI, the nearest most of his members had come to the vests was when they were measured in recent weeks to wear them.

John Egan of the GRA said the only gardaí being taught how to use the retractable batons were the recruits in Templemore garda training, while gardaí remained without training and without batons.

The vests and batons are just some of the items which the GRA and AGSI have demanded since 2004, when an independent report by University of Limerick health and safety expert, Dr Thomas Garavan, found almost 90% of gardaí felt afraid going to work and felt they were under-equipped for their frontline duties.

Last night, a garda spokesman said the anti-stab vests were being delivered and allocated to officers.

He said the delay in the allocation of the retractable batons was because the “trainers” were themselves still in training.

They would teach officers to use the weapons, he said.