Gardaí to demand an independent police authority

Frontline gardaí are to demand an independent police authority, to remove political influence from a force which they maintain is being stripped of its power to protect the public and tackle crime.

That will be one of the messages coming from the three-day Garda Representative Association conference which opens in Westport, Co Mayo, this evening.

The GRA, which represents 11,000 frontline members of the force, says they are short 400 patrol cars and the situation is so critical that Garda management recently had to hire four vehicles to help in the investigation into the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohue in Co Louth.

GRA members are furious that Justice Minister Alan Shatter will not lift the recruitment embargo unless they take further pay cuts.

GRA president John Parker said the minister himself and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan have both confirmed that the Garda force would not fall below the minimum 13,000 required to police the State.

But with many gardaí due to retire and no recruitment in place at the Garda training college in Templemore, a dip below that figure could be fast approaching.

“If the minister lets the number drop below that he’s abdicating his responsibilities in protecting the public and fighting crime,” said Garda Parker. He added that while the Government had promised to replace patrol cars, which must be withdrawn after they reach a 300,000km mark, they are not doing so fast enough.

“They are buying small transit vans which have 600,000km lifespan, but they are not suitable,” he said. “They have only room for two gardaí so they can’t be used to bring a number of members to public order incidents or accidents.

“We need to ensure that regular frontline units have more high-powered patrol cars. We have highly skilled personnel able to drive them and the criminals have big, powerful cars.”

Garda Parker said his members will continue to abide by the terms of the Croke Park I agreement. But, he said, if the Government reneges on this by seeking further pay cuts, the GRA will row back on that agreement and refuse to cooperate with new rostering arrangements, performance development, increased civilianisation of the force and use of new technology.

The level of anger among GRA members has become so pronounced that, for the first time in the association’s history, it has not extended an invitation to a sitting minister of justice to attend its annual conference.

Some members have expressed the view that they shouldn’t have invited Commissioner Callinan either, because they feel he is not doing enough to push for more resources.