Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ON TUESDAY EVENING, it emerged that an order had been sent to every station in Dublin by the Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy banning all overtime for the month of December.
Members of An Garda Síochána were shocked, so too were the reporters covering the issue. It had seemed that there would be no overtime in what would be considered one, if not the busiest time of the year for our police force.
However, after much clarification and to-and-fro both by Garda management and the Taoiseach in the Dáil yesterday afternoon, it emerged that overtime in December would be paid as it would come from next year’s Garda budget.
Even so, what this means now is that all Garda overtime between now and Monday coming is cancelled.
In the grand scheme of things, members have accepted it. However, for four days, many Dublin gardaí now feel helpless.
TheJournal.ie contacted a number of members of the force and asked them if they could tell us what the overtime ban would mean to their daily routines.
Mayhem
One said:
“When we heard it down the station first, we actually thought it was a joke. Then it sank in and we were confused. Kind-of looking at each other saying ‘at Christmas?’.
I don’t want to go into specifics of what I wouldn’t be able to do but for the next week I’m clocking in to do paperwork and then I’m out. But there was mayhem here for a few hours anyway and I suspect there’ll be mayhem until Monday.
Another member added:
“Suppose somebody comes into my station and said ‘Right – Joe Bloggs around the corner is doing something with drugs’ – as in maybe he’s getting a kilo sent to his house to be cut on a certain day.
We couldn’t go in on someone’s word – we can’t do that. There’d be surveillance to be done and also asking other members familiar with that area to have a chat. That’s the kind of added work that gets a case over the line and that needs overtime. So to be out of it for over a month would be madness. But the four days is bad enough anyway.
Another garda told us that any planned arrests would not happen, there’d be no supervision in stations and, for some areas of Dublin, it means that there will be no anti-crime patrols in areas which see a lot of anti-social behaviour.
Other members said that until Monday there would no extra crime beats and no detentions for serious crime outside normal duty hours.
The message from one member summed up the feeling within gardaí:
No overtime effectively cripples us.
After criticism from rank-and-file organisation the GRA yesterday morning, the force issued a statement on the issue yesterday afternoon. All overtime would be covered from early next month as the 2018 budget money is to kick in then, it said:
“An Garda Síochána’s budget for 2018 starts on Monday 4 December and from that day overtime will then be available to regional, division and district officers for policing delivery within the overtime budget allocated to them. All officers will be reminded of the clear need for them to stay within allocated budgets.
Policing services will continue, including tackling organised crime (Op Hybrid in the DMR), Operation ‘Thor’ the nationwide anti-burglary initiative, as well as routine road safety initiatives.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, in response to a question from Fianna Fail’s Micheál Martin, also confirmed in the Dáil that any funding for overtime in December will be taken out of the 2018 budget as wages are not paid until the new year.
“I would have hoped Garda management would have been aware of that,” he said.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland yesterday, the President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) Ciaran O’Neill said that overtime was being used to supplement the force because there were insufficient numbers of gardaí servicing the State.
“Overtime is the cheapest form of policing and it has been used in the past to fill the numbers,” O’Neill said.
With reporting by Christina Finn
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Couldn’t agree more. The impact of not seeing loved ones is going to be hugely damaging for residents. My grandmother has gone downhill since this started. She would have had a visitor nearly every day. She can’t watch tv or read a book due to mild dementia. She’s essentially looking at four walls all day every day now and has had a number of falls. I think the homes need to facilitate visits in the garden ASAP, especially given the good weather. We can refrain from touching but even for her to see her grandchild would give her so much joy.
This is not an easy one to call. But I’m siding with the author on this. Cant help thinking that insurance is playing a big part in decisions being made along with safety and already private nursing homes have a lot of questions to answer. If it were me I’d want to care for them in my own home but not everyone can manage that.
my mother is in a nursing home in the uk the home locked down in the start of march no visitors. no cases so far.
My mother who will be 93 in July is in a nursing home in Sandymount and they have been in lockdown since March. They had 1 suspected case which necessitated all residents being convined to their rooms for a 2 week period whilst awaiting results which thankfully were negative. My mother found this incredibly difficult as she suffers from depression but I feel they had no other solution. The staff bring her to the window twice a week and we have a 30 minute slot with her. One of the staff has being putting her hair colour in for her which she is delighted with. They obviously cant have their usual activities which necessitate people coming in but they are being brought out to the garden and kept at a distance from each other. We also ring a couple of times a week and the staff pass their mobile to her as she does not use a phone. I certainly feel they have handled the situation well. I appreciate the mental repercussions for some people but safety is the main concern for all. I think we will get to visit soon under strict conditions. I’m very grateful to the staff in this home for their vigilance during this pandemic.
This is a very well written article. It conveys the sentiments of so many. I think that the proposal of schdueled social distanced outdoor visits makes a lot of sense and I hope that those in authority take heed and are proactive sooner rather than later.
What a stupid article all of a sudden now we must hurry things up , as a FRONTLINE worker the last thing I want is members of the public dropping in …. People still not listening
Yes
have your say