Garda numbers to fall by 10% by 2014
The National Recovery Plan states that Garda numbers will fall from 14,500 this year to 13,500 within a year and to 13,000 by 2014, a total drop of 10%.
The dramatic cut will put considerable strain on the force, which may be faced with a rise in recession-related crimes, such as burglaries and thefts, as well as a worsening threat from organised crime and dissident republicans.
The plan said that staff numbers in the rest of the Justice area will drop from 14,800 this year to 13,250 in 2014 (a drop of 10%).
Reacting, Aidan O’Donnell of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), said the cut of 1,500 would bring them back to when “supervisory ranks struggled to provide a quality police service to the people”.
He said the recruitment in recent years had brought Garda numbers closer to the European norm: “We used to have one of the lowest police-to-people ratios in Europe. We had almost reached the European average. Now we are being knocked down again.”
The plan said the total Justice savings would be €370m.
“As this area of expenditure is staff intensive, savings will be made through progressing scaling back in existing numbers, with associated efficiencies.”
Some €230m of the €370m will come from:
* €100m in payroll savings.
* 40m from savings in the asylum area.
* 25m from Garda management efficiencies.
* 20m in procurement savings.
* 15m in court service efficiencies.
* 10m in savings in each of the following: criminal legal aid; probation service; and non-payroll administration.
A further €140m savings will come from reductions in overtime, allowances and transport.
The report said: “A more effective Garda rostering system will ensure there are enough gardaí to meet priority policing demands. Civilianisation will maximise the availability of gardaí for duties of a policing character.”
In the Prison Service, a review of “all tasks in prisons and places of detention” will be conducted to deliver “further staff efficiencies”. It said prison should only be used “as a sanction of last resort” and be for serious criminals.
The Fines Act, when implemented by the Courts Service next year, would keep defaulters out of jail.
