GARDA COMMISSIONER MARTIN Callinan has told sergeants and inspectors that he is aware of their financial burdens but that more must now be done with fewer resources.
Callinan was speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) today. In his address, he said he was “acutely aware of the financial burden and uncertainty” facing many members of An Garda Síochana and that he has noted the concerns of the AGSI.
“In these difficult times, we must all accept that there are many challenges to overcome and that as a collective group we will be responsible for facing and overcoming these difficult challenges,” he said.
The commissioner said that the requirement now facing the force is that “more needs to be done with fewer resources”.
“An Garda Síochána is not immune from the current financial environment or the reductions to public spending,” he said. “This is the stark reality.”
The public in the communities in which we serve expect and deserve our utmost commitment and we need to continue to be professional in the way in which we carry ourselves while conducting a very important role in society. This is a time in which restructuring and reconfiguration of our service delivery needs to be our main focus, where we can achieve efficiencies and effectiveness in the areas of intelligence, technology and proper deployment of resources to meet our operational demands.
In the Dáil today Taoiseach Enda Kenny mirrored comments made by Justice Minister Alan Shatter at the conference yesterday about the exit of garda bodies from the Croke Park agreement talks. Kenny said that unions representing other frontline workers had stayed and “they were able to have the original proposals changed”.
Kenny said that, having met gardaí all over the country, he had “made the point that it would have been preferable if the representative association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors continued to use the facility”.
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