Niall O'Connor

THE GARDA COMMISSIONER has said there will be enough gardaí to police EU Presidency events in Cork despite a group representing rank and file gardaí telling its members they can refuse to work. 

In the coming days hundreds of gardaí will be on duty across Dublin and Cork for a major security operation to secure events for the beginning of Ireland’s stint as President of the Council of the EU.

In Dublin, the major event will be the opening ceremony due to be held tomorrow, while in Cork, there will be a visit of the College of Commissioners, which will include Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

As An Garda Síochána does not have enough gardaí in County Cork to police the events there it has declared an extraordinary event to bring gardaí in from other counties and divisions. 

The Journal understands that members from across Munster and other areas will be bussed into Cork city in the early hours of Wednesday morning from various districts. They will then work a full day and then be bussed home. 

Uniform gardaí work a four days on four days off rotation of 12-hour shifts. The gardaí will generally be doing this on cancelled rest days, which means they will be working on their days off.

As reported by The Journal the Garda Represenative Association (GRA) have raised significant concerns about this.

A special delegate conference in Kilkenny in February had decided on the protest action in a row with garda headquarters over workplace conditions.

The measure saw the GRA withdraw from crucial meetings at which the deployment of gardaí would be decided.

At their Annual Delegate Conference in April, a tetchy debate took place around whether there should be industrial action.

The row centres around the payment of allowances or a set rate for expenses for the gardaí when they travel from their stations. There is also an issue whereby the gardaí being forced to work on their rest days will not get those days back. 

On Monday night the GRA issued a missive to its members across the country after an emergency meeting of its top table. 

The GRA claimed that the move to force gardaí to work in Cork on their rest days is a breach of a Work Time Agreement; the garda representative group say that Garda management are breaching an undertaking that they wouldn’t do it. 

The missive read: “In response, the GRA have informed management of this view and now wish to inform all members that they cannot be directed or forced to perform duties on a rest day, including travel, without that rest day being cancelled, unless the member themselves are willing to.”

At a special meeting in Dublin yesterday, it was decided that the GRA would “fully” support any garda who refuses to work the days in Cork. 

Sources have said that there are concerns that could cause a shortage of gardaí to police the Cork events. 

The GRA told its members in their missive that if gardaí “choose not to carry out duty where a rest day has not been cancelled, that member will be fully supported by the GRA and the GRA will engage with the dispute process if it is triggered”.

Justin Kelly, the Garda Commissioner, speaking at a press conference today, said that the issue was a complicated one, but he believed it would be resolved in time. 

“There’s a process, an established process to resolve these. It’s in that process, and look, I’m confident that it will be resolved.

“I’m very confident that the policing of those events will go ahead, and we’ll have safe and secure events,” he said.