A REPRESENTATIVE FOR rank and file gardaí in Limerick said that moving some gardaí off specialist units will “erode” work done to make the city safe in the years since its murderous gang feud.
Garda Representative Association member Frank Thornton, who is based in Limerick city, has claimed that officers in Limerick working in drugs and community policing units have been told their units are to be disbanded.
The Journal has independently confirmed with multiple sources that gardaí in specialist crime patrols, local task forces, drugs units, roads policing in various areas across the country have been told they will be going back to so-called “regular” policing.
The Garda Press Office has insisted any members being moved off specialist duties are not full-time official members of those units – however in many cases they have served lengthy periods as part of these units, and local GRA members regard them as being essential to the operation of the units.
It comes as the Garda Representative Association (GRA) are set to enter crisis talks with the Minister for Justice this morning. The group will also meet with Commissioner Drew Harris tomorrow in an effort to broker a deal on a long-running dispute on rosters.
Gardaí at present work a four-on-four-off roster which was introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Commissioner Drew Harris has said he will introduced a revised roster of six-days-on four days off in November regardless of opposition from the GRA.
This week’s meetings follow last week’s overwhelming no confidence vote in the Commissioner from the rank-and-file policing body – with 98.7% of the 85% member turnout backing the motion.
The GRA are in dispute with the Garda Commissioner regarding a new working roster. At present gardaí work across four teams, known as units – for the revised roster it will require a fifth group to be created which will be known as ‘Unit E’.
To achieve this the garda organisation is moving officers from their current postings to take up positions in this new unit.
The Journal has also learned that a document exists, from last November, that the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris forwarded to a senior official in the GRA, stating that ‘Unit E’ would not be introduced as the staffing levels could not be met.
This document was sent via email and is in the possession of senior leadership in the GRA and was sent at a time when the GRA offered that regular garda response units would stay on a four-on-four-off roster while specialist units would move to a six-on-four-off rotation.
Now, as there are not enough gardaí to fill this unit from the regular force, the extra staffing requirement will be met by taking some gardaí off specialist units.
The proposed introduction of the revised work time arrangements, known as the Westmanstown roster, introduction has led to the ongoing dispute and last week’s confidence vote.
Frank Thornton, who is a senior GRA official based in Limerick, said that gardaí in the city and county have been told that they will be returned to normal policing duties.
Thornton explained that this is part of Commissioner Drew Harris’ plan to staff the new roster and warned that it would degrade the policing response.
Last Friday, he said, eleven gardaí attached to the Divisional Drugs Unit in Limerick were been told they will be redeployed. It is understood that these gardaí were engaged in monitoring drug gangs in County Limerick.
Thornton said this “literally halves” the unit across Limerick Division.
He also revealed that 24 gardaí attached to Community Policing were informed that their units were being “disbanded and redeployed leaving no designated Community Policing Units in Limerick City”.
“This in effect erodes all the efforts to date in combating crime, and drug activity in the Limerick Division,” he said.
Thornton said there was “mixed messaging emanating from the Commissioner” and that this was ”causing huge frustration amongst the membership”.
Thornton confirmed the existence of the document from Harris stating that ‘Unit E’ was no a viable option.
Thornton also lashed out at Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s when comments where he described the dispute as “a bit silly”.
“Condescending comments questioning our members that they didn’t understand the question on the ballot has not been lost on the members I represent,” he said.
A murderous feud between drug gangs broke out in Limerick in the mid-to-late 2000s in which more than 20 people were murdered.
Former Dublin City Manager John Fitzgerald completed a report in 2006 on how to deal with the issue of gang violence in Limerick’s neighbourhoods of Southill, Moyross, St Mary’s Park and elsewhere.
His report made robust recommendations for extra gardaí and the development of dedicated community policing across, not just those areas, but in the whole city.
Local representative and TD Junior Minister Niall Collins has strongly criticised the move to take the gardaí out of their current postings and said that community policing must be protected.
“The implementation of the new roster is very challenging. Community policing and drugs policing is vital in Limerick and it’s not a binary choice of a new roster or community/drugs policing.
“Engagement on these issues by all stakeholders should continue while seek to ramp up the number of new gardaí through ongoing recruitment,” he said.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, speaking at the Ploughing Championships in County Laois yesterday, said she has been given assurances by the Garda Commissioner that no community policing units will be disbanded.
“I have been absolutely assured, time and time again, that no units will be disbanded,” she said.
“I have been given assurances from the garda commissioner and senior management that there will be no disbandment of teams, maybe reorganising the units that will change and alter but there will be no disbanding of units,” she said.
A garda spokesperson said that the gardaí being moved off the drugs and community policing units were not full-time appointed members and were temporary appointments.
Across the organisation gardaí are being moved into specialist units on a so-called ‘buckshee’ basis – this means that they are not officially appointed to the role. The garda spokesperson states that it is ‘buckshee’ gardaí who are being moved.
However the GRA is of the view that many of these members have become integral to the workings of the specialist units.
“The implementation of the Westmanstown Roster will require, and provide an opportunity to restructure local unit composition and thereby enhance the service to the public by increasing the uniform visibility of frontline Gardaí,” the spokesperson said.
The garda spokesperson said that the “in the interests of clarity” no Garda members formally appointed to specialist units will be impacted as part of the reintroduction of the Westmanstown Roster.
“There is no organisational policy to disband either neither Community Policing Unit or Divisional Drugs Units – there remains an ongoing commitment to both community policing and drugs enforcement.
“There are no plans for any station closures or changes to publicly advertised opening hours of Garda stations a there are no plans to impact on community policing, Juvenile Diversion or similar programmes, all of which operated previously under the 5 unit Westmanstown Roster,” the spokesperson added.
Any temporary changes to unit allocations, the garda said, will be reconsidered and addressed through the ongoing recruitment process.
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