LAST UPDATE | 19 May 2023

A GROUP REPRESENTING gardaí has questioned the “decision-making model” being employed by garda management to police anti-immigration protests.

Antoinnette Cunningham, general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants & Inspectors (AGSI) said frontline members “feel grossly under trained and inadequately directed” as she says they have not received “operational guideline” for managing protests from senior garda management. 

She said gardaí need training in “how to consistently and equally apply the law to these situations”, and that she has written to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris seeking a meeting with him.

This included requests for training in relation to “peaceful crowd management, dealing with protest, the Public Order Act, the Incitement to Hatred Act”, as tools for gardaí to manage protests.  

She told Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio One that she would be asking, “What is the decision making model being applied by garda management in these situations”, pointing to decisions taken by gardaí at a blockade of a direct provision centre housing over 20 asylum seekers in Inch as an operational decision by management.

Pressure

The government and gardaí have been under increasing pressure to explain the stances taken to manage protests, in light of the burning of a makeshift camp in Dublin’s Sandwith Street and the reported boarding of a bus by protesters to conduct a “headcount” of asylum seekers in Inch, Co Clare. 

Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman and Justice Minister Simon Harris met with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris last night, in a meeting where the government “reassured” them of its “ongoing support for their work”.

Green Party TD Patrick Costello says he wants the commissioner to appear at the Oireachtas Justice Committee about the recent attacks on migrants and asylum centers, about what he says appears to be a reluctance to police the protests effectively.

Costello’s call followed appeals from the Immigrant Council of Ireland, the Movement for Asylum Seekers in Ireland (Masi) and fellow Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan who all urged An Garda Síochána to tackle anti-migrant actions in a more proactive manner. 

A spokesperson for the government said that the Ministers and Commissioner agreed that finding accommodation for currently unaccommodated asylum seekers is an “absolute priority for the safety of the individuals involved”.

Commenting on these reassurances, Cunningham told broadcaster Aine Lawlor: “It might be fine that the commissioner has satisfied the Minister for Justice, but the membership that I represent are certainly not satisfied at this point in time.”

She added: “It’s okay for the Garda Commissioner to tell politicians that there’s operational integrity to deal with the protest, but the ordinary guard that’s left dealing with it on the frontline is grossly under trained, doesn’t know if the public order unit are there [and] what is their role other than to prevent a breach of the peace?”

She disputed the claims that the force have “operational integrity” to police protests, questioning whether this is based on overtime for gardaí, the “taking of resources from one area to another”.

However, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said that the commissioner was “confident” that Gardaí had the capacity to deal with anti-refugee protests.

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“I think the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána is confident in respect of Gardaí having the capacity and integrity in terms of the ability to deal with these issues and they will develop new strategies to deal with this,” Martin said.

The AGSI has “grave concerns” about the situation and Cunningham said difficulties can arise with “spontaneous protests that can arise with very little notice”, as opposed to planned protests which gardaí have had time to prepare for in advance. 

Cunningham warned that the risk of increased attacks on migrants “has to be seen as real”, pointing to a 29% increase in reported hate crimes in 2022 via a Police Authority report last month.

“No citizen has the right to stop another and ask them for identification. Garda management are well aware of the operational issue that’s arising here and so the frontline members will sit and wait for their direction as to how this situation is to be managed,” she said.

“And sometimes operationally, management might decide that it may be better to negotiate or deescalate rather than take a heavy handed approach. They may also decide for some other operational reasons that are not apparent to us that this is the best approach.”

She added that gardaí are regularly coming under heavy criticism from members of the public who “say the guards are doing nothing”, when what is happening is that the gardaí policing a protest are “under direction from senior garda management as to the appropriate course of action to take at a particular incident at a particular time”.