Officers urge harsher sentences for assaults on gardaí

There should be increased sentences for those who viciously assault gardaí, and extra supports to help officers who are so stressed by their jobs they consider suicide.

These were among the many requests made to Noirín O’Sullivan, the interim Garda commissioner, at the annual meeting of the Garda Representative Association, which represents rank-and-file members.

Its president, John Parker, said members of the force suffer more stress, depression, and alcoholism than in a lot of other jobs. He said that, and over the last number of years, he had been increasingly aware of members who had taken their own lives.