GARDAÍ ARE RESIGNING from the force because of bullying and workplace stress, a study has claimed. 

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) conducted interviews with 22 gardaí who have left the force in recent months.

Speaking to media ahead of tomorrow’s annual conference in Mayo, Tara MacManus, Assistant General Secretary, said that the study has identified three key issues: bullying, work related stress, and unfair treatment by Garda management. 

“There are multiple factors and multiple reasons, but they’re all interlinked, and the main reasons so far that the majority of participants have given me is bullying.

“That is bullying on the units that they’re working on but predominantly, it’s bullying by management. And that ranges anywhere from inspector rank up to senior management ranks.

“And that’s deeply linked to the secondary reason which is work related stress and so a lot of them are talking about being overloaded with work and not enough people to actually do the work. That feeling of stress comes out of the feeling of bullying come together,” she added. 

The GRA made the move to conduct exit interviews after it was revealed that An Garda Síochána were not conducting meetings with resigning members.

The GRA spoke to 12 male gardaí and 10 female gardaí about why they resigned. McManus said that no participants in the study felt that garda management recognised their contributions. 

The vast majority of gardaí The study found that 15 of the respondents had suffered mental health effects and that none of the people would recommend An Garda Síochána  

McManus said that there is a need for extra supports to help gardaí suffering from mental health impacts from their work. 

“A survey that we would have commissioned ourselves a number of years ago would have said that one in four of our members is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or are on the verge of developing full blown PTSD.

“That’s very frightening numbers and shows that there needs to be a dedicated service,” she said. 

Another key issue to be discussed at the conference is the workload faced by gardaí – this includes not having enough gardaí to respond to 999 calls and also a large volumes of files which must be completed.

Gardaí can be disciplined, which could include losing their job, if they are late with paper work as District Courts will not accept charges if the file is not completed within six months from when the event occured.  

McManus said that she has spoken to gardaí who have said that they went to garda management and after warning they were struggling with their workload. 

“I have interviewed a couple of people, and they were talking about going to their management and saying, ‘I’m struggling with my workload’.

“And they’ve been told you need to develop better time management skills.

“I suppose not recognising that members are struggling, and not recognizing that they need a little bit more support, deemed to be causing trouble just because they’ve raised the issue that they need more support,” she added. 

The conference begins tomorrow morning and garda Commissioner Drew Harris will address delegates on day one with Minister for Justice Simon Harris attending on Wednesday.