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GARDAI HAVE HIT out at under-staffing in the armed support units which they say is putting members of the force at immediate and serious risk.
Speaking at the Garda Representative Association (GRA) annual conference in Westport in Mayo, officers described situations where they claimed to have waited over an hour for armed members to attend dangerous scenes.
GRA representative for Sligo/Leitrim Ray Wims told The Journal that there have been very serious incidents in his district where officers have been left waiting “unacceptable” amounts of time.
He said: “We do not have sufficient armed backup to deal with these violent incidents. There is no armed support unit in the Sligo/Leitrim division.
“We have the facts, stats don’t lie. The armed response, the majority of the time, they’re over 30 minutes away and sometimes over 60 minutes away.
“Is it acceptable that unarmed officers go to the scene of a knife incident or a firearm incident and they’re waiting over 30 minutes for armed backup to come?”
The conference passed various motions yesterday which called on the Garda Commissioner to carry out a review of armed support capability, including:
Specifically referencing the Taser issue, Wims said there needs to be more serious discussions about the potential to arm officers with the non-lethal weapons.
“We have to have the conversation whether we arm frontline response officers with Tasers or not. There is a huge rise in domestic violence. These are high stress incidents that members attend to,” he said.
“We are in a different place than we were 15 years ago. It is emergency situations that we’re dealing with.
“We’re calling on the Garda Commissioner to do a review in each Garda district of armed backup, the response times.
“We’re aware GRA members from Sligo/Leitrim are aware of several cases in 2021 where it took over two hours for armed backup to call, and many times where it was cancelled because uniform officers deescalated the situation before the armed backup came.”
Wims claimed that response times are a concern, but that members are aware that armed backup is not always readily available – they’re sometimes told to contain a situation instead:
The member is going to put their life at risk to go in and take the suspect out of the house. They will not leave the person there for over 30 minutes or an hour. They will deal with the situation as best they can.
“They risk assess it themselves. When armed backup is requested, it’s requested for a reason. The member feels their safety is at risk – we’re not equipped to deal with it.
“[Let's say] there is a knife produced, or there is a firearm produced – what do we do? Do we tell the victim armed backup will be there in 30 minutes? The ETA is always given: 30 minutes, 60 minutes. And we have the stats. We want the Commissioner to do a review on it – to have the conversation.
“Armed backup, I’m told by my colleagues, is readily available in the urban areas because it’s contained but rural areas because it’s so vast, and that’s why we want the Garda Commissioner to look at the international norms.”
Last month, The Journal reported that armed support units in the capital are also facing a staffing crisis.
There have been several reports of overtime being used to fill minimum requirements for the ASU in recent months, according to multiple sources.
Garda Representative Association (GRA) rep Ciarán O’Neill told The Journal that there needs to be more done quickly to ensure that the ASU is brought up to full capacity.
He said: “The Armed Support Unit is there to provide an urgent armed response to support our frontline members when needed.
“It is extremely worrying for both gardaí and the public we serve that this unit is not operating at full capacity.
“There is now an urgent need for the members successful in the recent recruitment process to the ASU to be adequately trained to provide an appropriate backup for our members on the frontline.”
The Garda Press Office has been contacted for comment.
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Athens enters the financial markets with a bang.!
About time.
Fair play… Should have been done here too seeing as protesting is absolutely useless.
So you think bomb’s should be set of in our streets? Idiot…we had enough of that carry on for 30 years on this Island.
In Northern Ireland you mean. The rest of the island didnt suffer any in comparison to up here.
Jamesy, I think you’ll find that Northern Ireland is on this island (nobody mentioned whose island it is). Or do you think that Northern Ireland is a separate island? Do we need to take a ferry to cross over to Northern Ireland? And, as far as I know, one person’s experience of a bomb exploding in Monaghan or Dublin is the same as another person’s experience of a bomb exploding in Omagh or Belfast – i.e. abject horror and psychological trauma at the very least. Or do you place a lesser value on casualties down south compared to those up north?
What sort of a cowardly animal would place a bomb in a car?
Bombing out the banks
And not even one banker dead.. what a waste of a good bomb!!!!!!
Can these lads not see this helps nothing ! Far from the empire they once were
When was the Greek state an empire?
Approximately 2,500 – 3,000 years ago when they had colonies stretching from Gibraltar to the Caspian Sea. There are still Greek speakers living today in Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey and Italy, albeit in dialects that are not mutually intelligible with modern Greek as spoken in Greece proper. The cities of Marseilles, Sevastopol, Trabzon, etc. were founded by the Greeks. Also, approximately 2,300 years ago we had Alexander the Great who built an empire that stretched from the Adriatic to Pakistan in which a multitude of cities were built in his name, such as Alexandria in Egypt, Alexandria in Afghanistan, Alexandria in Pakistan, and Iskanderiya in Iraq.
The Greek nation is less than 200 years old.
Jeremy, I think you’re confusing the word “nation” with the word “state”. The Greek nation has been in existence for thousands of years, sometimes under petty kingdom rule (Sparta, Athens, Macedonia, etc.), sometimes under the rule of foreign powers (Rome, Ottomans, etc.) and at other times as a unified independent state (Kingdom of Greece, Hellenic Republic, etc.). Greece’s current independence is less than 200 years old, but the nation is far older. You’re actually quite typical of a lot of Irish people when it comes to terminology – you use words in the wrong context and mix meanings up. Tell me this: without consulting a dictionary, can you tell me the difference between “ethnicity”, “race”, “nationality”, “citizenship”, “aboriginal”, “indigenous”?
By the way, just in case I’m misconstrued, that “You’re actually quite typical of a lot of Irish people” comment was not meant as an insult. I apologise if it came across the wrong way.
There are quite a few sick people commenting here which is understandable when you consider the number of Shinners who are attracted to the Journal.
Streamlining its bloated public sector. Why didn’t we do that?
We did.
The cost of governing was reduced including a reduction of 30,000 in staff numbers.
The majority of those 30,000 were temporary contracts that weren’t renewed, natural attrition, and people retiring early.
Correct Pierce. Nobody who was permanent was let go as the job for life still exists. I can only speak for county council staff but a few need firing as some are useless. They know they can get away with doing the minimum. These people will never stretch themselves or go out of their way to help. A lot of council workers become unemployable after being with the council any length of time.
When they wore awesome togas I can assume Jeremy :)
have your say