GRA seeks urgent meeting with Garda Commissioner after letter details shortfalls within armed unit

Frontline gardaí are seeking an urgent meeting with Garda boss Drew Harris after one of its delegates questioned the ability of the Garda's elite armed unit to deal with a serious terrorist or gangland incidents.

The Garda Representative Association sought the meeting after details emerged of vacancies and overtime cuts within the Emergency Response Unit, the organisation's top armed intervention squad.

Their line managers in the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said it shared the concerns, saying there was a particular issue regarding the ERU's ability to deal with “spontaneous, urgent, hostile” incidents.

A letter sent by GRA representative for the ERU, Ciarán O'Neill, to his superiors says there are 21 vacancies within the unit and that unarmed frontline gardaí will, at times, be left unprotected as a result.

It mentions a recent case in Louth where local officers targeting the violent Drogheda feud were allegedly waiting a number of hours for armed backup from the ERU.

The contents of the letter, which was detailed in full in the Irish Daily Star today, has been confirmed by the Irish Examiner.

The Louth divisional commander, Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan said he has never had any difficulty securing the services of the ERU for planned incidents, telling local radio that they would be there “at a moment's notice”.

GRA HQ said the letter was internal correspondence and should not have been placed in the public domain and declined to comment in detail on its contents.

But it added: “The GRA is seeking an urgent meeting with the Garda Commissioner regarding resourcing of Emergency Response Unit. We wish to discuss concerns raised in a letter from a local GRA representative to the Detective Superintendent in charge of the Unit.”

Antoinette Cunningham, deputy general secretary of the AGSI told RTÉ that they agreed with the “thrust” of the letter's concerns.

She said her members in the ERU said they are concerned regarding their ability to respond appropriately to “spontaneous, urgent, hostile” incidents as opposed to planned operations.

But Chief Supt Mangan told LMFM: “I have never had any difficulty in securing the services of the ERU - they will be here at a moment's notice for me, let it be 3 o'clock in the day or 3 o'clock in the morning - they have been here.”

I'm never shy about saying when we don't have enough resources. I would always be very frank with the public – if there was a problem I would say it.

Garda HQ confirmed they received correspondence from the GRA, but that, as it primarily referred to operational matters, it was inappropriate to make direct comment.

It added: “An Garda Síochána is satisfied that there is currently a specialist firearms response capability to any critical firearms incidents that may occur in the state.”

In relation to the murder of Drogheda teenager Keane Mulready-Woods, Chief Mangan said he suspected the 17-year-old was murdered in the town. He said the missing remains made it “very, very difficult” for Keane's family who were trying to plan for a funeral.

Meanwhile, gardaí in Drogheda have been urged to exercise care after details emerged that a garda driving home was followed by suspected criminals.

Garda O'Neill's letter sent on behalf of the ERU members to Detective Superintendent Alan McGovern of Garda Special Tactics and Operations Command (STOC).

“It is incumbent on me as their GRA representative to make representations regarding the reduction of resource allocation and the reduction of the number of armed patrols and at times the complete lack of a fully available covert emergency response capability to deal with any urgent issue that may arise that requires the services of the Emergency Response Unit,” the letter said.

“The decision to cut overtime means that this organisation, in my opinion, does not, at times, have the available resources to deal with a serious terrorist or serious firearms incident and as such will leave our unarmed colleagues on the frontline without adequate protection.”

The letter said there were 21 vacancies and that four ERU members were permanently allocated to protecting Commissioner Harris.

It said early last week members in Drogheda were left waiting for a number of hours for requested ERU assistance.

“This was due to the fact that only five members were available to deal with any incident," the letter said.

It highlighted a lack of training, updated courses on first aid and out of date equipment, including bulletproof jackets more than 10 years old and a lack of covert bulletproof jackets.