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Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Minister to tell rank-and-file gardaí she will strengthen their mental health supports

Helen McEntee will address the annual delegate conference of the Garda Representative Association today.

THE MINSTER FOR Justice will today tell rank-and-file gardaí that she is committed to supporting the expansion of their mental health supports.

Minister Helen McEntee will later address the annual conference of the Garda Representative Association (GRA). She will tell delegates that she will work with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to identify how to fund expanded services in the coming years.

This will include additional training in mental health, self-care and support as well as extra mental health support contact sessions for gardaí.

The minister will tell the conference that plans will also include the widening of mandatory psychological support within An Garda Síochána.

McEntee, in her address, will tell delegates that their role is “absolutely crucial in protecting our communities”. She will acknowledged that they deal with traumatic incidents in the course of their duties and that it is vitally supported that the necessary supports are available to them.

She will also stress to the GRA members the importance of destigmatising mental health issues and encourage all garda personnel to seek help when they need it.

The theme of this year’s GRA conference, which has been limited to a smaller number of attendees due to Covid-19 cases, is “Communities Matter… So Do We”.

Yesterday GRA President Frank Thornton called on the minister to work with the association to reduce a 50% increase in assaults on gardaí. 

“One of the many challenges that we have faced over the past year has been the sharp rise in assaults on our membership,” he said.

“Assaults on gardaí in the five-year period to 2020 rose by over 50%, with almost half being as a direct result of such injuries being suffered by gardaí on duty.”

Thornton said he will outline to the minister and her department how they can “work with us to change perceptions and deliver tangible deterrents to address this ongoing affront to our members”.

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19 Comments
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    Mute Scott Crossfield
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 9:21 AM

    The things that some guards are asked to see in a year is more than most people see in a lifetime. Give them all the support they need even if they don’t realise they do.

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    Mute Andrew English
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 10:07 AM

    @Scott Crossfield: yea I’d say the dirt of some of the cars they have to peer into is horrendous when checking for tax and insurance.

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    Mute slfc21
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 11:26 AM
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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 9:25 AM

    I know someone who lost their licence and subsequently their job last year because the Gardai prosecuted them for having trace elements of THC metabolites in their system. They were stopped on a Wednesday and hadn’t consumed cannabis since the previous Saturday night so they were entirely unaffected and unimpaired at the time. The behaviour of the gardai throughout the case was both combative and unprofessional. They simply didn’t care that they were destroying this persons life. This is happening up and down the country, not just in flawed roadside drug tests but in the increasing prosecutions of people who use cannabis to help with anxiety, chronic pain etc. it’s difficult to have any sympathy for the mental well-being of gardai when they have so little sympathy for the victims of outdated, flawed and unjust laws. I appreciate gardai don’t make the laws but they do influence them and they continue to prioritise cannabis detections despite overwhelming feedback from the public that we see it as a waste of time and resources.

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    Mute James Reardon
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 9:38 AM

    @Declan Doherty: was it a urine sample they made him take or one of them roadside swab tests do you know?

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    Mute slfc21
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 9:39 AM

    @Declan Doherty: you said it. They don’t create laws. Nor do they design their own equipment. They also don’t have a choice on what laws they should or shouldn’t enforce based on their personal opinion or yours Can you produce some valid stats to show they prioritize cannabis detections please?
    I can’t comment on the ‘behaviour’ of gardai you refer to as that is just your accusation of someone else’s experience.
    Your comment has nothing to do with the article imo.

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    Mute slfc21
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 12:44 PM

    @Declan Doherty: also you can’t be prosecuted on the roadside drug test alone. You can be arrested following it.

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    Mute ChronicAnxiety
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 1:00 PM

    @slfc21: They do have choice about what laws they enforce – parking blocking footpaths is totally ignored , in fact many Gardai do it.

    Ruining someones career because they smoked a joint 4 days previous is completely unfair-

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 1:26 PM

    @slfc21: When it was pointed out that traces of cannabis can stay in the body for a week, the Minister was asked if cannabis users who were “completely sober” at the time of the test could be prosecuted. “Yes,” he said. (Pascal Donoghue as minister for Transport on the introduction of roadside testing in 2015). This is happening to people now in increasing numbers. Studies have shown driving impairment following cannabis use to last anywhere between 3 to 8 hours so the excuse that this is about road safety is just a lie. Operation Tara was kicked off this year and specifically targets consumers and low level dealers. This has resulted in a number of idiotic court cases where elderly medical consumers have been hauled through the courts for tiny amounts worth less then €5. This is 100% within the guards discretion and yet they choose to destroy these lives and remove any small comfort and relief those people may have. When laws do more harm then good we need to review those laws but we also give the gardai plenty of discretion and choices with what they go after and how they deal with it. Our courts are full of minor cannabis possession cases while domestic violence calls go unanswered so forgive me for not being overly concerned about the mental health of gardai because they do active harm to the mental health of people already suffering from issues such as anxiety, pain, depression, insomnia etc.

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    Mute slfc21
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 1:48 PM

    @Declan Doherty: so you are working off a quote from 2 years before the roll out of the legislation . Again the road side is an indicator for arrest along with the guards opinion. A subsequent sample would be taken after arrest. Blood or urine and analysed and quantified. Again this has nothing to do with the article and going back to your original comment it might also be hard to sympatise with your friend if you were the family member of someone killed by an intoxicated driver.

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    Mute slfc21
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 1:50 PM

    @ChronicAnxiety: they don’t. And that’s just a baseless comment.

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    Nov 23rd 2021, 3:56 PM

    @Aileen Lawlor: that’s your view. Perfectly entitled to it. I dont agree with it as a whole. But again. What argument ? This is an article about mental health. There’s no debate that it’s a traumatic job.

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 4:42 PM

    @slfc21: It doesn’t matter when he said it. The minister for transport confirmed that sober drivers would be prosecuted. I said I happened to know someone who has been affected by this law. He lost his licence, his job and his career for driving sober. He was not intoxicated.

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    Mute slfc21
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 4:45 PM

    @Declan Doherty: look at the legislation. Your just wrong.
    And the fact that you would deny 13000 at least people mental health intervention due to traumatic life experience based in one personal story that you haven’t even interpreted correctly about 1 in 13000 people . Says more about you than the guard your complaining about

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 7:28 PM

    @slfc21:

    We’ll just have to agree to disagree and I never said anyone should be denied mental health care.

    Academic Director of the Lambert Initiative, Professor Iain McGregor, said: “THC can be detected in the body weeks after cannabis consumption while it is clear that impairment lasts for a much shorter period of time. Our legal frameworks probably need to catch up with that and, as with alcohol, focus on the interval when users are more of a risk to themselves and others. Prosecution solely on the basis of the presence of THC in blood or saliva is manifestly unjust.

    “Laws should be about safety on the roads, not arbitrary punishment. Given that cannabis is legal in an increasing number of jurisdictions, we need an evidence-based approach to drug-driving laws,” Professor McGregor said.

    Feel free to have the last word. I’m not going to keep debating it with you.

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    Mute slfc21
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    Nov 24th 2021, 12:59 AM

    @Declan Doherty: stop copying and pasting things you don’t understand. It’s ok

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    Nov 24th 2021, 10:30 AM

    @Declan Doherty: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2016/act/21/enacted/en/html. Just for your reading

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    Mute Paul Madigan
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    Nov 23rd 2021, 8:30 AM

    The journal just did

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