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RANK AND FILE gardaí will withdraw from voluntary overtime today, in the first of five Tuesdays earmarked for industrial action.
They will enter a de facto work-to-rule by not agreeing to work overtime on Budget Day 10 October and Halloween night 31 October – as well as 17 and 24 October.
The gardaí have colloquially begun to call the action the “Drew Flu” – which is a reference to their 1998 withdrawal of labour known as the “Blue Flu, when gardaí called in sick in a dispute over pay and conditions.
Last month, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) members took a vote of no confidence in Commissioner Drew Harris – with 98.7% of the 85% member turnout backing the motion.
While the main gripe recently has been Harris’s intention to change garda rosters, the GRA says it’s more than that.
Speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday, Brendan O’Connor of the GRA said the vote of no confidence in Harris was not a misstep.
“Our members have become very unsatisfied with a lot of things that are happening in the job. They felt their voice wasn’t being heard. We were being dismissed… this was building for quite a while,” he said.
He said the organisation deferred a vote of no confidence at last year’s AGM, “so the writing was on the wall that there were serious problems emerging”.
He said it was obvious that the problems “simmering under the surface” were going to “boil over”, despite the insistence of the Commissioner and Minister for Justice that there was no morale issues.
Asked whether the GRA had personalised the dispute, O’Connor said it was not personal in nature but that it had become “very entrenched”, adding that some of the commentary surrounding the issue is very unhelpful and is leading to “irreparable damage to the relationship between the members and by default, the workforce and the leader”.
He said it remains the GRA’s position that it will not return to the negotiating table unless there is a withdrawal of the implementation of the old roster on 6 November.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee said on Sunday that she had confidence in Harris and would not intervene in the dispute.
“I will not direct the Garda Commissioner nor will I direct members as to where or when or how they should be working,” she said.
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Our police system needs a complete overhaul. I’d even go as far to say a rebrand. Guardians of the peace is no longer take seriously. Our police service needs some serious investment and to be on par with other European services like Germany and France if they want to up numbers. It needs some liaroidi! Get rid of that commissioner and justice minister for a start.
@John Sheahan: I agree. Police should be respected and to some extent feared. We have a situation now where scrotes and young bucks just laugh at the guards when it comes to trying to implement law and order.
Just imagine treating a French or German police that way? or a NY cop? It would not end well for the character with the smirk.
@David Corrigan: They police the law abiding, those of us they can intimidate. They don’t police open drug dealing on Dublin’s boardwalk, or the abuse that happens in halting sites. They don’t investigate car thefts (“do you need us to send you a form for insurance”).
But if you are otherwise law abiding and your tax disc is out? Some of them become dirty Harry.
Police every one or no one. Stop targeting us because you are incapable of dealing with the criminal class.
@John Sheahan: ‘needs a complete overhaul’….that’s what this guy is trying to do and this is what happens.I do agree in principle with your other points.
@David Corrigan: Respect is earned. Don’t expect to pull on a badge and automatically have everyones fear and respect these days and rightly so. Alot of people join the force for that reason then find out things aren’t so simple anymore.
Good for them typical here they impose so called temporary measures and they become permanent after years of people lying down and not standing up for themselves.
Agree with them 100% St Helen needs to go and bring the other fellow with her.
They are right. Must be very disheartening protecting the elite among us while paid peanuts.
They are not paid peanuts, they would be amongst the best paid Police Forces in Europe. However I do agree that they require a complete overhaul, then again don’t most government departments in this country.
It’s very ironic that as part of the peace deal in the north the RUC was replaced by the PSNI with local policing boards & accountability at a local level
Our govt were involved in pushing for this
Yet no such system exists south of the border – maybe that would be a good place to start reform
@Gerry Kelly: do you mean Joint Policing Committees?
“Joint Policing Committees (JPCs) provide a dedicated forum to support consultation, cooperation and synergy on policing and crime issues between the Garda Síochána, local authority officials, elected representatives and the community and voluntary sectors. A JPC operates in each of the local authority areas, with 31 in total.”
@Paul C: JPC’s are not fit for purpose, I’ve been to a few meetings where Supers and Chiefs tell local politicians that everything they want to hear,
Was at one recently when a Super said he was happy with his manpower and had no issues. However, the reality was that in order to put out a mobile patrol his Didtrict had to join up with another District to get one car to cover both.
@Bilko: what manager will admit that they can’t manage to anyone let alone in a public forum. In AGS that is career suicide. That type of comment is reserved for those already retired and looking to boost their profile for their private enterprise venture !!
@PAUL C: so the JPC is a waste, just another smokescreen.
When i left the prison service after 30 years there were over 20 recruit gardai in training with applications in to join the prison service,that says it all to me.
Makes me laugh how the government states we must pay Judges etc good money to stop corruption. Yet new and recent entrants to the Gardai are poorly paid. Takes years of payscale increments to have a decent salary. Crazy too that time served rewards civil/public service employees instead of capabilities.
No shortage of people wanting to be Guards.No degree or even a high leaving cert result needed for entry. Not many quitting to take up better jobs or emigrating either. Ambulance staff have a ten times more difficult job on about half the pay (HSE). They are not nurses. Most rural Guards have the cushiest jobs imaginable. A police force should be run for the benefit of the people paying for it. Not the Gardai themselves.
Can you show us the figures for your in-depth research of “no shortage of people wanting to be guards”? Can you back up your claim that Ambulance staff have 10 times the work with half the pay? Bet you can’t!!!
@Barb Dwyre: if you think that Garda have a job even remotely comparable to a HSE paramedic, we can leave it there. Your grasp on reality is tenuous.
Gardai don’t leave AGS. No one would ever give them half the pay and conditions they have. If they did we’d be hearing about it.
@Barb Dwyre: Yep there’s some gaslighting from reality with those made up stats.
I left .. doubled my salary within 2 years .. so what’s your point ?
Judging by the independent polls the public are not with the guards on this one, they are the highest paid police in Europe and before anyone says its not about money, its always about money
@paul doyle: It’s political as well….people always hated the fact that he was a psni man…..and it’s a national hobby giving out about and calling for the head of government ministers.
@paul doyle: For some, it is not always about money.
Fair play to them. Deserve a lot more respect, gratitude, renumeration and support from the public and government.
Industrial action/strikes for Gardai(and all Tuesdays in October) and Barristers today, Bus eireann yesterday …. country is a joke. Varadkar will need a four or five way coalition after next election, judging by FG’s embarrassing poll ratings. With the likes of McEntee holding high office they are only heading in one direction.
This is why the hate speech law nonsense will never work. We don’t even have a proper police force. It’s all for show to appease lefty NGOs
LOL
If it’s a good day everyone who calls for Gardaí today will get a response, even if it takes longer than normal for that to happen. If it’s a bad day some people won’t get a response, the working Gardaí will have to prioritise what calls to go to first and may get delayed for several hours depending on the circumstances they encounter at the higher priority calls. The delayed response is a demonstration of the lack of available resources to deal with the workload, that’s a failure of management, at local and national level.
We need a multi culture police force to get things back in order it’s a free for all thanks to muppets in Leinster house
It wasn’t that long ago during the troubles in Northern Ireland that members of the Gardai would regularly be seen providing checkpoints alongside the army all along the border as well as a host of other tasks such as cash escorts, explosive escorts, security in quarries during blasting etc. along with all the other normal duties and responsibilities associated with the day to day job of being a member of An Garda síochána
They were literally meeting themselves coming off a shift with worse pay, conditions, resources and equipment.
Despite all of the above they did the job with devotion and loyalty to the State with little complaint and in return were well respected by the majority of citizens.
They sadly lost a lot of members in the line of duty during those time’s.
I think that this new generation of Gardai would not be fit to tie the shoe laces of their predecessors and wouldn’t be happy with whoever was in charge or whatever rosters they did.
Always moaning about something and with no loyalty to the government or the citizens of this country. They are not worried about the reputation or good name of An Garda síochána anymore.
If some of them are not happy with their lot, or feel they are not up to the job, then maybe they should choose a different career.
@Chaotic State: That’s the point. They are choosing different careers. Retention issues have been highlighted as much as recruitment issues. That aside, I doubt there are many employees in the country that would be happy working under the same conditions as 30 years ago.
@Chaotic State: ah yes those great guys for whom the Garda Siochana act 2005 GSOC was brought in due to the outrageous stuff they got up to !! Good point, well made little buddy…
@Chaotic State: Different times, different population, different expectations from the public and different living conditions, you might as well be talking about a completely different job. Older and retired Gardaí could find a place to live or build very nice homes where they wanted, someone midway through their career today can’t
Lads I have the utmost respect for An Garda Siochána as some of you may have noticed on Instagram. I am really disappointed at the Guards going on strike. During the last strike I saw a lone Garda on duty near Pearse St Station. I didn’t have the opportunity to park my car and shake his hand. Ignore the hothead attention seekers (anarchists) in the GRA. This strike won’t cost them a penny.
@Alan Casey: 25 years ago?? So you think a few hot headed gards (the gra) have just decided on a whim to not do overtime on a Tuesday for the next few weeks
@Alan Casey: They have not gone on strike. They have simply declined to do voluntary overtime.
No sympathy for them after the way they carried on during the pandemic. Little bit of extra power turned many of them into little tyrants
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