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LAST MONTH SAW an unprecedented move by the organisation representing rank-and-file gardaí with the announcement of four strike days in an escalating dispute over pay restoration.
To further mount pressure on the government, sergeants and inspectors followed suit, deciding yesterday to join their colleagues and withdraw their labour on 4, 11, 18 and 25 November.
When asked about the organisation’s contingency plan for the strike days, a garda spokesperson said there are “mechanisms in place for resolving these matters” and that the Commissioner would encourage all bodies to remain engaged.
The best outcome for all involved, including the public is that these issues are resolved within these mechanisms.
Though garda management and members of the government continue to talk about sitting around a table to hash out the issues, representatives of those planning to withdraw their labour remain resolute.
President of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), Antoinette Cunningham, today told TheJournal.ie she believes it is “highly likely” the first strike action on 4 November will go ahead as planned.
I don’t see any resolutions coming forward from government. I see a lot more talk and rhetoric and very little progress. There is no choice, you know, the government have failed in every agreement they’ve made with us.
‘It won’t be feasible’
If Cunningham is right, the force on 4 November will go from having a pool of around 13,000 staff to relying on a couple of hundred senior officers and 600 of the force’s newest recruits for general policing.
“We won’t be able to function without sergeants or inspectors,” one probationer garda told TheJournal.ie.
“It won’t be feasible to have superintendents dictating every action of the probationers.”
Sources have also pointed out that the situation now is very different from that of the ‘blue flu’ of 1998 when there was a large number of probationers, so more areas could be covered.
It has not a hope of working, the numbers don’t add up.
Management is hoping the 789 garda reserves will step up to provide cover on the strike days, but these volunteer members may refuse to ‘pass the picket’, in solidarity with their colleagues.
“It’s a difficult and stressful job and members survive because of close working relationships. Because of the fact that on duty we all depend on each other to go the extra mile, it’s felt that a lot of reserves won’t be available on duty,” one garda said.
A lot of them are only in the reserves as a stepping stone to a fulltime career and they would see the current action as something that would most benefit them in the longterm.
It is expected many of the country’s garda stations will be forced to close to the public on strike days.
Disruption
The courts, too, may face “serious disruption”, senior counsel Seán Gillane told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today.
“Even at a time of no industrial action, we rely heavily on the cooperation and flexibility of members of An Garda Síochána.”
Gardaí will be compelled by witness orders to appear in court to give evidence and are unlikely to ignore these as they could face severe sanctions. However, at district court level, the industrial action could cause significant disruption.
Gillane explained that at district level, the first appearance of an accused is largely governed by evidence of arrest, charge and caution, which is always presented by a sergeant.
The absence of sergeants could mean that cases that are due to be initiated have to be “struck out”.
Skeletal service
Yesterday, the Garda Representative Association asked members of the Emergency Response Unit and Regional Support Units to report for normal rostered duty on strike days, to ensure a “skeletal service to protect the security of the state”.
The association’s general secretary Pat Ennis has written to the Garda Commissioner requesting specific details of the contingency plan for the days of industrial action.
But disenfranchised members of the force say government has left them with no other option and it is now up to the minister and the Commissioner to figure out how to police the country.
“It’s an issue for management if there is no agreement in the meantime,” one source said. “There is still time for it to be averted if an agreement is reached.”
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So concerned he’s gonna do absolutely nothing about it
A very impressive performance by Leo on Prime Time. SF/FF and the hard left will be worried.
@P C: no – just think ordinary citizens should be.. slipper character.
P C. Yes he is a very good actor alright, He should be on the stage.
@ray.farrelly: the sign of a ‘good’ politician
@P C:
Well FF should be worried. SF and the hard left shouldn’t be too worried. They are never going to get in to a position of power and very much target the voters who are anti FG or FF regardless of what policies they would introduce, SF will probably lose some votes to FG but the the majority of them will be demonstrating the flock mentality and voting anti government
@ray.farrelly: the first stage out of town preferably.
Well now Leo the lady who wrote the article on Regina Doherty and her failed business was only writing the truth so how can the guards be legitimate in stopping her from leaving Ireland? Surely that could have made contact with her before she got to the airport. I think we need an inquiry into this. Seem to me your ministers are running amuck, what with Simon thinking he could commandeer a helicopter and now Regina having her own private security team to question someone who writes about her. Morally that’s wrong
@Mary Murphy: its clear Ms Doherty’s issue with the journalist and professor in political studies is a civil matter and if she has any recourse it’s through a deformation case in the Courts. Doherty had no business in making a Garda complaint as no criminality had occurred. The Garda also knew this and no doubt told her so. BUT the Garda reacting in the way they did, only illustrated the political nature of their involvement with the State. And their willingness to bully individuals on behalf of a Minister.
Doherty should step down, totally immature. And we as citizens should be rightly worried in the light of Jobstown, and the MacCabe debacle.
@Martin Critten: very good points. A member of government using their political power and utilising state resources to undertake a personal civil agenda would require a resignation in most civilised counties.
@jason bourne: yeh but this is not a civilised country because just look at how these goughers threat the citizens of the state. We are just the dregs who stupidity re-elect them and this is due to the fact that the people of Ireland have on average the lowest IQ in the EU which is due to emigration over the years where the brightest left the country and the dumbest entered politics representing FF/FG. The civil war is over so stop voting for them because all you are doing is shooting yourself in the foot as their agenda has nothing to do with civil war politics only neo-liberalism which is why you die in Waterford if you have a cardiac at the weekend.
” video evidence is something that should be looked at by the garda commissioner and senior garda management”
*should be* if only you were in a position to do something about it Leo… Oh wait.
Enda Kenny and Fine Gael entered government by default. Now Leo masquerades as Taoiseach without any public support. (the leadership contest might have played out like an election but it certainly wasn’t)
How long must we put up with this charade?
@Mark DeFriest:
The Taoiseach is never elected!! It’s always a Dail vote
@Tweety McTweeter: true but before he gets elected as Taoiseach his party gets a mandate form the electorate
@Christopher Doyle:
His party does have a mandate. They got more seats than any other party. They commanded a majority vote in the Dail for the election of the Taoiseach.
@Tweety McTweeter:
Well he certainly has no mandate from the people. And I doubt he ever will given the extreme right wing nature of his political vision.
@Mark DeFriest:
Extreme right wing? Are you kidding? He’s no Marine Le Pen, he only suggested that (god forbid!) working people should be given a break
@Tweety McTweeter:
Stop dressing it up, he’s a Tory straight from the Thatcher rule book plain and simple, a neo liberalist intent on destroying the working class. Anything that threatens private business’s ability to make profit is an enemy of the state as far as Leo is concerned.
@Tweety McTweeter: A minority government depending on independents and backroom deals the sees FF fool people and makes a sham of democracy by playing the part of opposition and coalition partner.
“We need to trust that when the gardaí stand up and say something happened, that it did happen” – a very startling comment from our new leader.. ah yea just believe what you hear, say nothing and move on .. lord
@Marc Gallagher: you misquoted.
Would the blogger be cautioned by the Guards if his target was a male politician i wonder? Somehow i doubt it. Are female politicians some special breed above criticism now?
classic Leo curve ball who of course has form in throwing people or organisation under the bus when it suits . Them Guards won’t be happy after all the will have seen themselves as taking one for the team only the be dumped when there caught yet again lying through their collective teeth .
@patrick gilmartin: you don’t understand how criminal cases work.
Being found not guilty does not mean a witness lied.
By comparing the ‘lack of prosecution’ in the Sean Fitzpatrick trial to the ‘Not Guilty’ in the Paul Murphy and Co trial, exposes Leo for the charlatan that he is. Playing politics, deliberately misleading and pandering to prospective new voters. What a sleeveen.
“giving evidence that is not in line with the facts”
Giving evidence that is not in line with the facts is called lying. Giving evidence that is not in line with the facts in a court of law is called perjury. It would the corruption is set to continue under Leo’s watch. Banana republic.
The state police were caught red handed committing purgery and colluding to commit purgery and it looks like there will be no consequences.
From the Gardai website: The Mission of An Garda Síochána is Working with Communities to Protect and Serve
Who were they protecting and serving here?
@Shakka1244: they should be sent to purgatory
@Shakka1244:
What’s purgery ?
What does it say when the leader of a country expects the head of a police force who is themselves under investigation for corrupt practices within their force, to undertake a further investigation into yet more corruption within the force? Lynda Le Plant couldn’t make this up! Great little country this.
Leo pull your socks up ,and sort the problems within the Gaurds before all credibility,when they take to the witness stand drains away
Must be investigated otherwise it sends out a message from the taoiseach that it’s ok to lie.one taoiseach did that,enda Kenny,was enough.but the garda cannot investigate it,for results to have any credibility,which the gda force does not have.and the taoiseach knows this.
Leo its called perjury
All socks no substance!
Poitical Policing,
Oh lets have another expensive inquiry, because we all know the outcome of such are acted on. Pfft… lets just waste more tax payers money for no benefit.
How about the DPP is held directly accountable for the disgraceful lack of due diligence and waste of public resources?
Why are Noirin O’Sullivan & her corrupt regime quiet after Jobstown six were cleared? Aren’t they going to discipline & sack the Gardai who fed the false evidence to court? These shameful people belong to prison….
@Thosj Carroll: on prime time they mentioned, they started an internal investigate the day after the verdict. What will come of this is a different story though.
It’s well known that recollections differ under duress. Does anyone remember the joke by the two Ronnies about the bank that was robbed. Police have collected statements from 10 witnesses who saw the suspect clearly and are looking for a 6ft tall dwarf with red/brown/blonde/black hair that is somewhere between short, long and medium weighing between 9 and 19 stone.
@Sean: Yes but, everyone didn’t remember the same wrong version.
An enquiry is not the way to go on this. There are 3 Gardai who should be facing perjury charges.
Where did the Video footage come from?, was it from the mobile phones of people on the protest,? , was it edited ? Was it from Official Garda Cameras ? Gardai made statements after the event, thay were hardly able to write down everything that happened on he site as it occurred . This incident went on for three or four hours, Gardai tried to record on paper what they seen happening at the scene. Even if you were at a football match, sitting beside your best friend, both of you could record different versions of events, that is not uncommon. If every statement was the same, they would be assured of collaborating and the media would again go to town. The Jury gave a verdict and that is the end, if they were found guilty they would had a field day complaining.
.
.
@Eugene Comaskey: what they saw…. not seen
Thought it was a bloody awful interview by prime time – Leo got a better grilling by his George Foreman making a cheesy toastie at home
“Video evidence of Gardai should be looked at by senior Garda Management and by the Commissioner.” Why? They were the ones who told them to lie.
How on Earth did the trial carry on then like that?
The Garda will investigate themselves
And sort all this out
I would of loved to have protested but I had to work on a weekday – I had bills to pay and taxes to pay
@Niall: Don’t panic Niall , those people had your back , they stood up for the people who opposed the water charges .
@Niall: would have loved to……not of
So every single time a case is lost the gardai should be prosecuted? They have their evidence honestly. At the end the case was not proven beyond all reasonable doubt. That does not equal perjury.
Maybe Leo should let a legal expert, like the judge in the trial, make the decision on if perjury should be considered.
@Karl: Leo said that he respected both the outcome and the decision made and that an inquiry is not necessary – he said that an internal review should be set up regarding procedure of how guards engage with evidence and at trial – which is underway
Yes Leo you need more like Zappone,Fitzgerald, Doherty, great girls all together at passing a book. They should have been demoted like Blondie.
I don’t know which is worse – these spineless cowards trapping the 2 women , or the gardai exaggerating the testimony . Clowns on both sides
@Jack Murphy: objectively – don’t see why the defence had to go as far as they did between verbal abuse etc (which we don’t need to get into) but why did the guards lie, why did they have to? Very wrong on both sides – which to be fair, it’s sad to see, but glad majority of people recognise it
@Jack Murphy: do u have Alzheimer’s? You repeated yourself almost verbatim one hour after your original post.
Video Evidence spoke for itself, Guilty as Charged!
These guys are women trapping bullies, there was no need for the gardai to exaggerate their accounts , clowns on all sides !
Sort it then ye dopey Muppet
Wait until he hears the Air Corps evidence about how they poisoned their staff… http://www.accas.info
In an interview with RTÉ’s Prime Time, Varadkar said that he didn’t think a public inquiry into the Jobstown investigation “would actually serve any purpose”.
A phrase that mirrors what CJ Haughey said after a child in State care was abducted and murdered by a former member of the clergy.
So there will be no public inquiry into Jobstown. If the State wouldn’t do it for a murdered child there isn’t a hope in hell of the State inquiring into the vindictive prosecution of citizens exercising their democratic right to protest.
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