Gardaí like ‘second-class citizens’

Gardaí, furious at being excluded from the Criminal Justice Victims of Crime Act enacted last November, claim they are being treated like second-class citizens.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan was yesterday assured the Garda Representative Association wholeheartedly agreed with the legislation and the improved rights for victims.

But GRA president Ciarán O’Neill, at the GRA annual conference in Wexford yesterday, said he couldn’t understand how gardaí were exempted from benefiting from the legislation.