THE PRESIDENT OF the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has said that it “wasn’t just rosters” that brought about the organisation’s decision to hold a vote of no confidence in Garda Commissioner Drew Harris last month.
Brendan O’Connor said the GRA had seen a “deterioration” in the relationship with the Commissioner in recent years.
O’Connor was speaking after Justice Minister Helen McEntee told RTÉ’s This Week programme 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.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, O’Connor 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 also said that there is “absolutely no element of sectarianism” among members involved in the dispute and said he would condemn it if it were to be found.
“Our members serve with distinction. We have a very ecumenical inclusive society, there is no element of sectarianism in An Garda Síochána and amongst the members I serve and certainly not in the GRA.”
He called the GRA “a very progressive organisation” and said it had welcomed the appointment of Harris in 2018.
“We had great hopes for the Commission on Policing Report, that a new dawn in policing would emerge, and that is what has led to the frustration of our members because what has materialised has actually been what we see as the denigration of the organisation.”
Last week, the GRA voted to strike on 10 November if the dispute over rosters is not resolved.
They are also planning to refuse to take voluntary overtime over the next five Tuesdays, including Budget day on 10 October and Halloween night on 31 October.
O’Connor said that if members are directed to work overtime, members “will will have to analyse the situation to see if they’re in a position to comply with that”.
He said they will have to comply with a lawful direction, but also raised concerns about whether there is enough availability within the pool of GRA members to provide overtime.
“We have a working time agreement where people have mandatory rest periods which dictate when they can’t be deployed. If you’ve deployed members to Dublin City and take them from outside the city there has to be travel arrangements and there has to be transport put in place.
Our members are entitled to the same rights of employment and conditions as any other worker under rest periods and we won’t allow them to be abused because those protections are there.
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.
Speaking this afternoon, Minister McEntee said meetings are ongoing this week around the matter, including between the Garda Commissioner and representative organisations.
She said it was “really clear” that everybody has the same objective.
“Despite the fact that there will be challenges in the weeks ahead, the Garda Commissioner has assured me that there will still be a full complement of gardaí, there will be enough members to continue doing the work that they do every day whether it is tomorrow, or the following Tuesday,” she said.
“But there is time here to negotiate, to double down, to try and find the solution, and that is a new roster, and I’m encouraging everybody because the alternative here is that I would as minister intervene and direct what roster should be in place.
“We have moved away from that type of policing. We should never be in a situation where the minister of the day is telling gardaí where and when and how they should be working.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say