Tánaiste: ‘No one wants gardaí to go on strike’
Speaking before her meeting with the Garda Representative Association today, Fitzgerald, who is also the Justice Minister, said she would not be personally conducting negotiations, but wanted to find a “pathway”.
Ms Fitzgerald told the Oireachtas Justice Committee that she met the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors on Tuesday and that she “listened” to them.
The AGSI lodged a pay claim of 16.5% with the minister, at the meeting — and expect to hear back from her before their special delegate conference, on October 17.
They will consider options for industrial action, including the “nightmare scenario” of withdrawing their labour on the same dates set by the GRA — November 4, 11, 18, and 25.
“No one wants gardaí taking strike action and I will do everything possible to stop it,” Ms Fitzgerald told the committee.
She said that there will be further discussions with the AGSI and that her officials would be in contact with the association.
She said one of their concerns was “how precisely” the Public Service Pay Commission was going to work.
The Tánaiste said she would like to see “continued focus on negotiations” with the GRA.
But she added: “There are parameters, let’s be very clear about that, regarding public-sector pay.”
She said 285,000 workers in 21 trade unions had accepted the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
Despite that, she said she wanted to find a “way forward”.
She said: “I do believe we can find a way.”
The Tánaiste listed the advantages of a proposal agreed with GRA negotiators last Friday week — which was rejected by the wider executive and delegates.
She accepted that “we do need to tease out” the connections between the Horgan Review into Garda pay and the Public Service Pay Commission. She described the meeting with the GRA as “an early meeting to find a pathway”.
“I am not negotiating myself; there will be a negotiation team in place,” she added.
The Tánaiste told the committee that she expected 800 garda trainees to be taken on next year.
She said this level of recruitment was required annually to meet the Programme for Government commitment of 15,000.
As revealed in the yesterday, the minister said that more than 5,000 people had applied for the trainees positions.
She also said her plan was to double the number of the Garda Reserve and to recruit a “couple of hundred” civilians next year, which would free up more gardaí.
Numerous deputies heavily criticised the quality of Garda crime statistics, following a review published by the Central Statistics Office last week.
Deputy Mick Wallace said there was “massaging of figures”, while TD Clare Daly said crimes were either not being recorded on the Garda Pulse computer system or were being downgraded.
The Tánaiste said the review had found that 17% of crimes did not appear on Pulse, down from 20% in the CSO’s previous review.
She said it found that 2% of crimes were incorrectly classified, down from 5%.
Touching on what might be in next week’s budget, she said: “In relation to additional capital expenditure, if finances permit, I would like to bring forward expenditure to 2017, to allow for the commencement of a new Forensic Science Laboratory.
“This would mean that this important capital project will be completed in 2019, rather than commencing in that year, as originally provided for in the Capital Plans.”
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, and published in the Irish Examiner last April, contained written warnings from the head of Forensic Science Ireland about the potential for court cases to collapse because of the poor state of its facilities.
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