LAST UPDATE | 14 Sep 2023

COMMISSIONER DREW HARRIS said he will not be applying for the vacant job of the chief constable of the PSNI.

Harris, speaking in Cork today, laughed off any suggestion that he may look to leave his garda job to move back to his former employers. 

Simon Byrne had resigned from the chief constable post earlier this month following a rash of scandals in the PSNI including a finding of unfair discipline by the force and a number of data breaches. 

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) announced yesterday that its members voted overwhelmingly to express no confidence in the commissioner, with 98.7% of the 85% member turnout voting ‘no’, a record return for the GRA.

It has emerged this evening that the GRA will meet with Justice Minister Helen McEntee on 20 September and Commissioner Harris on 21 September.  

His immediate reaction to the question of the PSNI job was to laugh. 

“I am a bit surprised at that question, I have no interest in being chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. 

“This is a real privilege to be Commissioner of An Garda Siochána and I take the role extremely seriously, I take my role in terms of protecting the people of Ireland, national security of Ireland and the well being of my staff all extremely seriously and I have a job to finish here,” he said. 

Harris, speaking yesterday characterised the vote of no confidence by gardaí as a “kick in the teeth”. 

Today he said: “It is not the blow, it is the ability to stand back up and keep going.” 

At the same event Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said that officials in the Department of Justice had been in touch with the Garda Representative Association (GRA) and she expects to meet them in the coming weeks.

The Minister said that she had discussed the issue with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and her colleagues. 

McEntee reiterated her calls yesterday for GRA to come to a negotiated settlement on rosters.

Earlier Varadkar, speaking to reporters in Foynes, Co Limerick, said there were issues within An Garda Siochana to be addressed but added that the non-binding GRA ballot was “not the way to solve industrial-relations disputes”.

He said the gardai should engage with the Workplace Relations Commission on the matter.

“I can understand why they want to keep the old roster, it’s very family friendly, involves working maybe 150 days a year, albeit very long days.

“I also understand why the Garda Commissioner wants to go back to the old agreed roster because that meant the guards were around more often when we needed them. That’s in the interest of the public too.

“But there’s always room for compromise and this isn’t the way you come to a compromise,” he said.

Asked if it was acceptable that Ms McEntee had not engaged with the GRA, Mr Varadkar said: “I have to check on that. You know, all ministers meet with representative bodies all the time. I’m sure she has met them, I’ll double check on that.”

Ms McEntee had defended her decision not to respond to a request for a meeting with the GRA by saying the personalised nature of the organisation’s confidence ballot put her “in a position not able to meet with them”.

The GRA will next have a special delegate conference in Kilkenny at the end of the month to discuss the result.

With reporting from Press Association