Efforts to fill senior Garda posts despite ban

THE Garda Commissioner is in talks with the Justice Minister in an effort to fill senior Garda positions despite the Government ban on promotions in the force.

Fachtna Murphy stressed that in spite of the moratorium, the Government has already allowed him to promote 10 Superintendents, three Chief Superintendents and two Assistant Commissioners.

“I am in talks with the minister to see what more leeway I can get in terms of the moratorium,” he said.

He was speaking in Cork yesterday at the launch of the country’s implementation of the national model of community policing.

Concerns were expressed by the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) earlier this week that the promotions embargo will put the public at risk.

Chief Superintendent Liam Hayes, who is head of the Cork City Garda Division, is set to retire next month.

The highly experienced garda has been involved in a number of high-profile cases, including the investigation into the death of 11-year-old Midleton schoolboy Robert Holohan.

Limerick’s most senior garda detective, Detective Superintendent Jim Browne, who has spearheaded the fight against Limerick’s gangs for several years, is also set to retire after a 35-year career.

There has been an unfilled vacancy in Macroom, Co Cork, since Superintendent Vincent Duggan retired from the force on September 1.

Superintendent Martin Shanahan will be vacating his post as the top garda in Mayfield next month, while Inspector Pat Cadogan is set to retire from Anglesea Street Garda Station.

Commissioner Murphy accepted he faces a challenge and expects to lose about 700 people from the force through retirement this year — almost twice the anticipated norm of 400.

But he said the force is coming from a good base with 14,600 sworn officers and 2,600 civilian support staff.

“The accelerated recruitment drive, in last three years particularly, has helped in this situation,” he said.

“The challenge for me as commissioner is to lead my management team and to deploy our resources where they are needed most through targeted operations where crime is being committed.”

A team of 30 civilian experts in crime analysis established last year is mapping areas where crime, public disorder and drug trafficking incidents are taking place to allow gardaí focus their resources, he said.

He also said a Crime Training Faculty set up last year will ensure that the experience of senior officers is passed on to junior members of the force.

“People retire. That is always the cycle of policing but the challenge for us is to ensure that we have the ability to train our people. This faculty allows us to get in our experienced people to help our junior people along,” he said.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Murphy described community policing as the bedrock of policing at the launch of the country’s first “community policing” model in Cork.

Introduced in Cork in 1988, the model which sees gardaí working closely with the city council, as well as local statutory and voluntary agencies, is one of the most advanced models of its kind in the country.

Commissioner Murphy said he plans to increase from 700 to 1,200 the number of gardaí working on community policing nationally.