agsi 2015 annual delegate conference report

37thANNUAL DELEGATE CONFERENCE

Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, Co. Meath30, 31 March & 1 April 2015

REPORT OF

21st Century Labour Relations

Setting the Agenda for Direct Negotiations

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@AGSI_Ireland

AGSITV

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Contents

3

Executive Summary ................................................................ 4 - 5

Day 1 Overview ..................................................................... 6 - 7

Day 2 Overview .......................................................................... 8

Day 3 Overview ........................................................................... 9

Motions & Constitutional Amendments Report ................. 10 - 19

Media Coverage & Evaluation .......................................... 20 - 37

Address by Mark Toland, Garda Inspectorate ................. 38 - 45

Address by Martin Naughton, Glen Dimplex ................... 46 - 50

General Secretary Address by John Redmond ............... 51 - 55

Address to Commissioner Nóirín O Sullivanby President Tim Galvin .................................................... 56 - 61

TETRA Health & Safety Concerns Address to Conference by Willie Gleeson ....................... 62 - 64

President Tim Galvin Address toMinister Frances Fitzgerald ................................................ 65 - 70

Conference in Photos ...................................................... 71 - 79

4

!e 37th Annual Delegate Conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors took place in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, Co. Meath from 30 March to 1 April 2015. We had full representation from our 33 Branches and some excellent contributions from our guest speakers over the three days, which we summarise in this report.

I think delegates will be in agreement that we had robust debate, engaging speakers but most of all a hint of positivity on the horizon with commitments from Government on recruitment, investment in training and ICT along with promises of better engagement. It is now up to the AGSI National Executive and Secretariat to ensure those commitments are met and if not met, broken promises will be highlighted in great detail directly to those concerned and if required in the media.

Out of 30 motions brought to Conference 26 were passed, two rescinded and two defeated. !ere is a full breakdown outlined later in this report.

Conference Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank the following people and groups for their input into Conference, which is always very much a team e"ort.

President Tim Galvin who led out the debate during his second Conference as President and who clearly delivered the views of the membership both to the Garda Commissioner but also to the Minister for Justice and Equality with great vigour.

Conference Specialist Committee Chaired by Vice-President Antoinette Cunningham and joined by Tim Galvin, President, Willie Gleeson, Rory Brennan, Donal Smyth, Brian O’Dea and Mick Hiney. !is Committee met frequently to ensure that Conference went o" smoothly.

National Executive Members who ably spoke on motions, advised the Specialist Committee on a number of matters and who continue to work tirelessly on behalf of the membership.

SecretariatComprising Deputy General Secretary John Jacob, Bernie Ryan and Alan Dowley who

Executive Summary

37th 537th

are the backbone of Conference each year. Without this team e"ort, Conference would not be as successful.

ScrutineersJohn O Dwyer Meath Branch (nominee from host branch), Mirian Mulhall-Nolan Kerry Branch (nominee from last year’s conference hosts), Declan O’ Byrne DMR South Central Branch (nominee from Standing Orders Committee) who o#ciated at Conference this year and who did a great job.

Branch Secretaries who ensured all correspondence was circulated to all members and who managed the return of motions.

Meath Branch members who organised local tours, guest speakers and facilitated meetings with the hotel on our behalf.

Delegates from each of our 33 Branches nationwide, thank you for your engagement, debate and discussion over the three days, it proved very valuable.

Guest Speakers Martin Naughton, Chairman Glen DimplexKieran Mulvey, CEO Labour Relations CommissionBill Roche, Professor of Human Resources and Industrial Relations, UCDJohn Barrett, Director HR & Personnel Development, An Garda SíochanaGarda Commissioner Nóirín O’SullivanProf L.O. Stomberg from SwedenMark Toland, Deputy Chief Inspector, Garda InspectorateMinister for Justice & Equality, Frances Fitzgerald

!e Knighstbook Hotel sta", whom you’ll agree did a fantastic job for Conference in accommodation, event management and hospitality.

Media and Communications O#cer, Joanne Sweeney-Burke.

Sound Works team who provided the Audio Visual support and ensured our technical requirements went o" without any hitches.

John Redmond General Secretary

6

For the second year running we hosted a live panel debate chaired by Joanne Sweeney-Burke. !e theme this year was AGSI’s model of direct negotiations and we were joined by an esteemed panel comprising:

!e panel members were: • John Redmond, General Secretary, AGSI• Kieran Mulvey, CEO Labour Relations Commission• Bill Roche, Professor of Human Resources and Industrial Relations, UCD• John Barrett, Director HR & Personnel Development, An Garda Síochana

Each panel member delivered a two-minute opening statement and delegates had an opportunity to ask questions and participate.

We also had feedback from the public via Twitter and we promoted the hash tag #AGSI15

DAY 1 | Overview

Standing Up and Speaking Out

AGSI’s Model of Direct Pay Negotiations

AGSI’S 10-STEP MODELIS A COLLABORATIVE ONE

1. Engaging2. Discussing3. Consolidating4. Cooperating5. Involving

6. Counselling7. Exploring8. Examining9. Developing10. Achieving

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

First opportunity to negotiate for our members in our 37-year history, so we will stand up and speak out.

THE ROAD WELL TRAVELLEDIN PAY AGREEMENTS

Croke Park I

Landsdowne Road

Haddington Road

LEGISLATION

New legislative framework required

EU Social Rights Committee Decision on Complaint 83/2012

Workplace Relations Bill

Labour Relations Commission

Labour Court

COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

Involving all stakeholders and communicating directly with all concerned

Garda Management

Department of Justice

Dept of Public Expenditure & Reform

Staff Associations

Labour Relations Commission

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!en the Chairperson posed questions around the following broad themes:

John Redmond, !e EU Decision on complaint 83/2012 is an obvious game-changer for the AGSI? And obviously the Association is anxious and eager to start direct negotiations. You have waited a long time for this opportunity. However, do you accept that eagerness will have to be tempered with patience? !ere are obviously new policies and structures to be put in place and other stakeholders’ views to consider?

Kieran Mulvey, you have been ‘breaking new ground’ in social partnership and industrial relations in this country over many years. While the AGSI Model for Direct Negotiations hangs its hat on collaboration, how di"cult will it be to get consensus with a ‘newbie’ at the table of negotiations? What are the potential stumbling blocks for AGSI? Is their model attainable or aspirational?

John Barrett, you have joined the Garda organisation at a time of great change and so in that vein, do you think the arrival of AGSI and the other sta# Associations to the table of negotiations is timely given the extent of transformation happening internally?

Bill Roche, in your experience and in terms of the available literature, how have other public sector bodies globally dealt with industrial relations change, similar to the situation now facing An Garda Síochána? How do you think this will play out?

Sickness Legislation Update

Vice-President Antoinette Cunningham gave an update on the Sickness Absence Management Legislation on Day 1 of Conference as follows:

Following the AGM’s AGSI decided upon and took on a number of actions:1. Pursue a four-year look back with Minister for Justice & Equality2. Pursue outstanding issues with Garda Commissioner 3. Commit to making this issue a priority for AGSI until a positive resolution is agreed

1

2

3

4

8

General Secretary John Redmond presented his report giving an in-depth breakdown of the work over the past year. Read the full text of his address on page 51.

Day 2 was dominated by Motions and of course the address by the Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.

Watch Commissioner O’Sullivan’s media interview on our YouTube Channel here:https://www.youtube.com/user/AGSITV

Please review the report of the motions later on in this document.

Commissioner O’Sullivan’s attendance was warmly welcomed but President Tim Galvin stressed the need for greater engagement with AGSI and much greater respect to the work of the Association and the voice of its members.

Read the full text of President Tim Galvin’s Address to Commissioner Nóirín O Sullivanon page 56.

DAY 2 | Overview

Result of Elections

Trustee Election:Edward (Ted) Hughes !omastown Kilkenny/Carlow Branch Standing Orders:Joe Hanley Tullow, Kilkenny/Carlow BranchJohn Gallagher Buncrana Donegal BranchJoanne O’ Brien Macroom Cork West Branch

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On day 3 we completed the debate on our remaining three motions. See over page for full report.

We also heard from the Minister for Justice & Equality, Minister Frances Fitzgerald who arrived to a very warm welcome from delegates and le$ to a standing ovation.

Read the full text of President Tim Galvin’s address to Minister Fitzgerald on page 65.

Read the full text of her address to Conference here.

Watch her media interview on our YouTube Channel here:https://www.youtube.com/user/AGSITV

9

DAY 3 | Overview

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/SP15000097

10

DRAFT MOTIONS & CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS 2015 CONFERENCE - REPORT

1. PAY Notes

1

!at Conference directs the National Executive to negotiate a restoration of Garda pay to 2008 levels, including the abolition of the Public Service Pension Levy and the Universal Social Charge, considering that major contributions and sacri%ces have been made by members of An Garda Síochána.

LAOIS/OFFALY/MEATH/CORK CITY/ DMR EAST/KERRY/GARDA HEADQUARTERS

CARRIED

2

!at Conference directs the National Executive to prepare and implement a strategy for the lodgement of a productivity pay claim for the members of An Garda Síochána of Sergeant & Inspector rank based on imposed expanded roles and functions, increasing workloads and accountability, our commitment to foster functionality and the growing economic recovery.

TIPPERARY

CARRIED

3

!at Conference directs the National Executive to formulate and implement a policy to challenge the renewal under Section 12 of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013 of the various Financial Emergency Measures Acts enacted since 2009 a"ecting AGSI members..

ROSCOMMON/LONGFORD

CARRIED

3. ALLOWANCES

CARRIED4

!at Conference directs the National Executive to seek the implementation of an Urban Allowance for members working in areas with a population centre in excess of 40,000. !ese areas having higher living costs than others.

DMR SOUTH

1137th

3. ALLOWANCES continued Notes

5

!at Conference directs the National Executive to seek an increase in the allowance payable to divisional crime scene investigators nationwide.

DMR SOUTH

CARRIED

6. TRAINING

CARRIED6

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on Garda Management to ensure that all Gardaí issued or permitted to carry a %rearm undergoes mandatory tactical %rearms training.

CORK CITY

7

!at Conference directs the National Executive to negotiate with Garda Management to ensure that su#cient members on regular units are trained and authorised to carry %rearms in all parts of the state.

ROSCOMMON/LONGFORD

CARRIED

8

!at Conference directs the National Executive to seek to have a national and comprehensive policy on continuous professional development training included in the national policing plan and senior Garda management be cited in divisions where the policy is not adhered to.

KILKENNY/CARLOW

CARRIED

9

!at Conference directs the National Executive to carry out a review of continuous professional development and look at the feasibility of centralising CPD funding to one location for more structured delivery and the introduction of compulsory training dates for all members.

DMR EAST

CARRIED

12

8. DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF SERGEANTS & INSPECTORS Notes

10

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on the Garda Commissioner to address the fact that due to the increased level of administrative duties being delegated downwards to Sergeant rank, little or no time is allowed for outdoor operational supervision responsibilities. !is con&icts with the %ndings of the Garda Inspectorate report.

GALWAY

CARRIED

14. TRANSPORT & EQUIPMENT

11

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on the Garda Commissioner to supply all members of our Association with an o#cial mobile phone, and phone package in line with other public servants.

MAYO

CARRIED

12

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on the Garda Commissioner to purchase a number of new motorcycles which are suitable for, and appropriate to, the role and requirements of Garda motorcycle instructors, so that they can continue to deliver motorcycle training in a professional manner, which does not compromise or increase health and safety risks to trainees and instructors, notwithstanding existing or any future policy and decision pertaining to the selection and purchase of Garda motorcycles for operational use.

GARDA COLLEGE

REMITTED

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14. TRANSPORT & EQUIPMENT Notes

13

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on the Garda Commissioner to implement an ICT package which would permit updating and the capture of all SAMS related activity in order to streamline the administrative process to ensure that members do not su"er %nancial hardship.

DONEGAL

Amendment:

A$er “hardship” insert “Also Garda Management to notify the a"ected member prior to reduction of pay or removal from the payroll”.

CORK CITY

CARRIED

14

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on the Garda Commissioner to introduce a special driving permit so as to safeguard members while driving o#cial vehicles on duty.

WESTMEATH

CARRIED

15

!at Conference directs the National Executive to request the Commissioner to have installed a Barrier/Divide between the front and rear of all patrol cars in order to ensure the safety of all members in light of the Supreme Court ruling, D.P.P. V Cullen

CAVAN/MONAGHAN

CARRIED

14

15. FORCE STRENGTH Notes

16

!at Conference directs the National Executive to request the Commissioner to explain the rationale behind the deployment of resources and to develop a Force Deployment model with set criteria, to ensure there is transparency in resource allocation across the country.

MEATH / LOUTH

CARRIED

17

!at Conference directs the National Executive to actively seek that the force number be brought, to stop Garda numbers falling below 13,000 and strive to achieve minimal numbers of 14,000.

KILKENNY/CARLOW / KERRY

Amendment:

A$er the word “brought” insert the word “up”

CORK CITY

CARRIED

18

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on the Commissioner to set aside a speci%c budget to allow for the allocating of extra manpower to cover the temporary loss of personnel through parental leave, term time, career break or maternity leave.

!is could be by way of the creation of a panel of retired members who could be called upon to replace/substitute serving members who have availed of time o" as outlined. !is would be similar to what occurs in other professions.

WEXFORD/ DMR EAST

Amendment:

Replace the words “term time” with “shorter working year”.

CORK CITY

LOST

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19. POLICING METHODS & TECHNIQUES Notes

19

!at Conference directs the National Executive to insist that all historical procedural audits be carried out by either a suitably sta"ed Garda Internal Audit Section or by the Garda Inspectorate. Any such audits should be included in that years policing plan with a clear methodology of why it is to be undertaken, how it should be completed and by whom and signed o" by the o#cer so requiring same in the national policing plan and dedicated resources assigned to it.

Current practice whereby substantial historical audits are imposed on front line members is neither an appropriate or e#cient use of resources. To task front line members with such a body of work without a stated framework, terms of reference or identi%able purpose is unprecedented in any organ of the state.

KILKENNY/CARLOW

CARRIED

23. ASSOCIATION BUSINESS

20

!at Conference directs the National Executive to review the Association’s legal aid scheme with a view to providing legal aid to members facing criminal investigation as a result of actions taken while on duty.

ROSCOMMON/LONGFORD

LOST

16

23. ASSOCIATION BUSINESS continued

21

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on the Commissioner to amend the content of HQ Directive 48/14, thereby exempting the use of driver training vehicles and motorcycles from the cancellation process, in relation to detections made during training courses, as members undergo instruction in how to safely avail of and use the exemptions a"orded to them under Section 87 Road Tra#c Act 2010.

GARDA COLLEGE

Amendment:

A$er the word “Commissioner” add “cancel H.Q. Directive 48/14” and remove the remaining lines of the motion.

CORK NORTH

Amendment:

A$er “2010” insert “such exemption to be extended to all Garda drivers driving emergency vehicles with greater than Competency Based Driving 1 (CBD1) training.”

CORK CITY

REMITTED

22

!at Conference directs the National Executive to enhance the AGSI Legal Aid Advocacy service on a regional basis. !is enhancement should include an expansion of the present divisional service, a minimum once yearly training programme, the creation of “a lessons learned” programme and access by advocates directly to the Association’s legal-aid subcommittee.

TIPPERARY

CARRIED

1737th

24. GENERAL MATTERS Notes

23

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on Garda Management to recognise members who are injured when representing An Garda Síochána at o#cially sanctioned sports events as being injured on duty.

CORK NORTH

Amendment:

Add “and to deem recurring injuries that were previously deemed as injuries on duty as injuries on duty when a member has to go sick because of that injury”

KILKENNY/CARLOW

LOST

24

!at Conference directs the National Executive to request the Garda Commissioner to establish a contact with GP’s Divisionally who would carry out work in the area of assaults taking of samples, assist in administration of Mental Treatment Act to streamline and standardise this area of Garda administration.

DONEGAL

CARRIED

25

!at Conference directs the National Executive to request the Garda Commissioner to review the provisions of Code 8.3 and HQ Directive 138/10 to allow members to serve within 50km of their relatives and spouses.

DONEGAL

CARRIED

26

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on Garda Management to accelerate the changes needed to collect %nes issued in court by a di"erent authorised body other than An Garda Síochána.

LOUTH

CARRIED

18

24. GENERAL MATTERS continued

27

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call on Conference to condemn the belligerent tone and nature of HQ 87/2014.

TIPPERARY

Amendment:

Add “considering the lack of continuous professional development training available to members who carried out such duties”.

KILKENNY/CARLOW

CARRIED

28

!at Conference directs the National Executive to call upon the Garda Commissioner to favour the inclusion of a time parameter of 70 days within Garda Code 11.37 being a period within which a Divisional O#cer must issue a certi%cate of injury without default or negligence or issue reason(s) as to why such certi%cate may not issue.

TIPPERARY

Amendment:

Replace the number “70” with the number “30”

CORK CITY

CARRIED

29

!at Conference directs the National Executive to promote the amalgamation of the Garda Inspectorate, !e Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and the Garda Authority into a single An Garda Síochána Independent Oversight body. It makes little %scal or administrative sense to have three separate public bodies charged with the Oversight of one body. !e savings from amalgamating all three should be used to increase the intake of recruits as the rate of new members will still not match those leaving the organisation this year.

KILKENNY/CARLOW

LOST

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24. GENERAL MATTERS continued

30

!at Conference directs the National Executive to ensure that they make better use of the Associations Communications o#cer in expedient rebuttal of generalised negative, and unfounded comments by various individuals across both the political & public divide against our Members.

CAVAN/MONAGHAN

CARRIED

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION

FIRST AMENDMENT

LOST

!at the regional electoral boundaries for AGSI be re-constituted by the amendment of Article 16 of the constitution.

!at the provinces be replaced by the Garda regions with 2 members per region elected instead of 3 per province. To maintain 13 on the National Executive this would mean the loss of 1 seat to the DMR or alternatively increase the National Executive to 14.

KILKENNY/CARLOW

20

Media monitoring

Brief members daily on

conference

Daily videos from Conference

Tweet from Conference

Post Conference Evaluation Report

Video interviews with National Executive, delegates

and guest speakers

Update AGSI members daily with ezine from Conference

Promote hash tag #AGSI15

Develop storiesfor media

Manage media interviews/EULHÀQJV

Prepare media pack

Ensure balanced coverage and positive sentiment

Agree positions and

talking points on key issues

Media Coverage & Evaluation

AGSI Media & Communications O#cer Joanne Sweeney-Burke developed a media strategy ahead of conference to ensure the following:

Secure media attendance

Brief AGSI spokespersons

Update website

Host panel debate

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Metrics, Media Mentions & Measurement !e following media outlets attended conference over the three days

22

TV Interviews 12

Radio Interviews

21

Commercial Value €510,000

40 Press Clippings

102 Online Mentions

2337th

Broadcast Media

Listenership / Circulation

TV & RADIO March 30th March 31st April 1st

RTÉ Radio, Drivetime with Mary Wilson 229,000 499,000

RTE Radio 1 Morning Ireland 449,000 449,000

FM104 News / UTV Radio Stations 219,000 219,000 219,000

LMFM 86,000

RTE Radio 1 News at One 349,000 349,000

RTE Television News at One 662,000 662,000

RTE Television Six One News 662,000 662,000

57e�1HZV�7HOHYLVLRQ�1LQH�2·&ORFN�1HZV 704,000

UTV Ireland 104,000 104,000

TV3 News 170,000

57e�5DGLR��7RGD\�ZLWK�6HDQ�2·5RXUNH 327,000

Nuacht TG4 104,000 104,000

Today FM News (throughout the day) 235,000 235,000

Today FM Matt Cooper Show 158,000

Newstalk Breakfast 126,000 126,000

Newstalk News (throughout the day) 100,000 100,000

Midlands 103 FM News 60,000

KFM News 80,000

98FM News 113,000

Tipp FM News 60,000

Northern Sound 40,000

24

Media Coverage Overview

Part 1 > Click Here

Part 2 > Click Here

Part 3 > Click Here

http://www.agsi.ie/articles/agsi-conference-2015-media-coverage-day-1/



2537th

Circulation

March 30th March 31st April 1st April 2nd April 3rd April 4th

Irish IndependentTabloid 117,361 117,361 117,361

Irish Daly Star 64,746

Irish Times82,059 82,059 82,059

82,059

The Herald(National Edition) 56,119 56,119 56,119

Evening Echo 18,632 18,632

Irish Examiner

37,009 37,009 37,009 37,009

37,009 37,009

37,009

Meath Chronicle 18,862

Irish News 81,105

Meath Topic 9,000

Galway Advertiser 70,000

April 9th April 11th April 14th April 15th April 16th April 18th

Tipperary Star 7,115

Roscommon Herald 8,761

Kerryman North 19,886

Kerryman South 19,886

Irish IndependentTabloid 117,361

Nenagh Champion 6,928

Irish Examiner 37,009

Print Media

26

Irish Examiner*Tuesday, 31 March 2015Page: 8

Circulation: 37009Area of Clip: 47400mm²Page 1 of 2

AGSI cool towards O’SullivanCormac O'KeeffeTrim,Co MeathRelations between middleranking

gardai and NoirinO’Sullivan have chilled asshe prepares to give her firstspeech as Garda Commissioner

to an association annualconference later today.

The Association of GardaSergeants and Inspectors(AGSI) described as “totallyand utterly unacceptable”the commissioner’s lack ofengagement with them overserious issues, including sickleave.

AGSI vice-president AntoinetteCunningham recalled

comments she herself madeat last year’s conference welcoming

Ms O’Sullivan’s appointment.

She said delegates werehappy with her appointmentbecause of her experience,“operationally and managerially”.

Ms Cunningham told theassociation’s annual conference

in Trim, Co Meath, thatthe commissioner’s lack ofengagement with them was“totally and utterly unacceptable,

disappointing andmore than a bit inconsiderate”.

She said the association,which represents almost

2,400 sergeants and inspectors,had sought four times

in the last seven weeks tohave meetings with her, butto no avail.

Ms Cunningham said asmall group of association officials

had met the commissioneron February 9, when

she had used the phrase“constructive engagement”.

However, she said that,since then, she had left frontline

members with no definitionof occupational injury,

no guidelines as to what

constituted a critical illnessand no policy on previousinjuries on duty, which stillaffected members.

It is estimated that around200 AGSI members are affected

by sick pay issues andthe AGSI argues that therehas been no clarity frommanagement about mattersarising out of sick pay legislation

in the public service.Ms Cunningham told the

commissioner that constructiveengagement was not

one-sided. She urged Ms

O’Sullivan to tackle those issueswith urgency and to respect

and acknowledge therole that the associationcould play in consultativeprocesses.

She said the lack of clarityhad caused financial hardship

to some members, whofirst heard they were off thegarda payroll when they received

a call from a financialinstitution to say that a payment

had not been made dueto lack of funds.

Editorial: 14

-6-



AGSIpresident Tim Galvin at the association's annual conference in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, Co Meath. Garda Commissioner NoirinO'Sullivan will address delegates there today. Picture:BarryCronin

-7-

Tuesday, March 31st 2015

2737th

Irish Times*Thursday, 2 April 2015Page: 7


Extra gardai not enough, says AGSIAGSI warns that recruitment move will dolittle to ease shortage of gardai on streets

Garda numbers down from high of 14,500to 12,800, with 300 recruits now in trainingCONORLALLYCrime Correspondent

Garda sergeants and inspectorshave welcomed plans for

an additional 250 recruits to betaken into the Garda Collegebut have warned the movewould do little to ease the shortage

ofgardai on the streets.TheAssociationofGarda Sergeants

and Inspectors (AGSI)said not only were retirementsfrom the force running at morethan 300 ayear, but some members

had availed of incentivisedcareer breaks.

Others had gone on secondmentto Government departmentsto fight social welfare

fraud and some members wereon maternity leave.

“The new recruits willnot goanywhere near replacing thosethat have left,” said AGSIpresident

Tim Galvin at the close ofthe association’s annual delegate

conference in Trim, CoMeath.

He described as “a myth”public assertions bysenior Garda

management that the forcehad sufficient manpower.

“People cannot get the Garda’s[emergency] service because

we do not have the resourcesnecessary to provide

the service. We are puttingsticking plasters over thecracks in the hope that the system

won’tbreak.”OverburdenedMr Galvin added that servinggardai were overburdened andstressed as a result. AGSImembers

were being swamped withadministration, underminingtheir ability to supervise theGarda teams under them.

While there was also a lackofinformation technology onwhich modern policing workedin other jurisdictions, the needfor more personnel was mostpressing.

Numbers in the Garda havefallen from a record high of14,500 since recruitment end¬

ed in 2008 to 12,800 at present.Most in the force believe the fig- %l JSSBure should not have been al- **~*^-*

lowedto fall below 13,000. Since last autumn, threeGarda Commissioner Noirin classes of 100 recruits have

O’Sullivan said this week that been taken int0 Templemore325 new members needed to berecruited each year to evenmaintain numbers at 12,800.

The recruitment process beganagain last autumn and

since then three classes of100 recruits have been takeninto the Garda College in Templemore,

CoTipperary.The new round of intakes, announced

yesterday by Ministerfor Justice Frances Fitzgerald,willbring to 550 the number ofrecruits in training.

Those who entered the collegein the first intake last au- u Minister for Justice Frances

tumn are nearing the end of the Fitzgerald said continuousfirst phase of their training and Garda recruitment would helpin the weeks ahead will be de- ease administrative pressureployedto stations nationwide. on serving gardaf.

“[They]willbe coming out lat- photograph: alan betson

er this year to work in our communities,to keep our communities

safe and to do the importantpolicing work and criminal

investigation that needs to bedone,” MsFitzgerald said.Access to firearmsWhile some AGSI memberssuggested during conferencedebates that heretofore unarmed

uniformed gardaf shouldhave access to firearms if andwhen the need arose, MsFitzgerald did not agree.

She was in favour of maintainingarmed detectives and

having armed regional supportunits, but suggested that was anadequate armed response forthe threat facing the Garda.

MsFitzgerald saidshe had listenedto AGSI’s concerns

around its members beingswamped by administration tothe point of being pulled awayfrom supervising front-linegardaf on the streets.

She believed continuous Gardarecruitment would help ease

some of that pressure.

-14-

!ursday, April 2nd 2015

28

Irish Examiner*Saturday, 4 April 2015Page: 9


Change inlaw ‘forcessick gardaito work’Cormac O'KeeffeChanges to garda sick leavehas resulted in a 30%drop insick days — but staff associations

have said this is becausemembers are coming

into work sick or injured.The issue is causing considerable

anger among frontlinegardai and middle-ranking

officers and led to strongcriticisms at a staff association

conference this week.Garda sick leave entitlement

was halved last yearfrom six months’ full pay,followed by six months’ halfpay, to three months for eachperiod — which is the general

public sector standard.The changes, introduced onMay 1, followed an unsuccessful

legal action by gardastaff associations.

Justice Minister FrancesFitzgerald said statisticsshowed 121,579 sick dayswere taken between Apriland December 2014.This wasa 30%drop on the same period

the previous year, whenthe figure stood at 173,884.

This figure breaks down to84,115days due to ordinaryillness, compared to 142,257the previous year (a fall of34%) and 27,464days due toinjury on duty, compared to31,627(a drop of 13%).

Ms Fitzgerald said the fallin sick days was “a welcomedevelopment”.

However, a Garda RepresentativeAssociation (GRA)

spokesman said: “These figurescan’t be taken at face

value — there’s anotherstory underneath. It is causing

undue suffering tomembers who are alreadydoing a difficult and stressfuljob.”

If a garda takes sick leaveafter the introduction of thescheme last May, those daysare added to sick days takenin the previous four years.

“In reality, because of theretrospective nature of thechange, members are havingto go to work when they arenot well,” said the spokesman.

“It is not good for theirwellbeing or for policing.”

He said members havegone to work in surgical collars

and wearing slings.“The garda job is different,”

said the spokesman. “Ithas been well proven thatrotating shift patterns areparticularly stressful on thebody and hammers the immune

system.”Tim Galvin, president of

the Association of GardaSergeants and Inspectors(AGSI), said the retrospective

nature of the changeswas causing most problems.

“The 30%reduction in sickdays does not reveal the realimpact,” he said. “A lot ofpeople are coming into worksick because they can’tafford to go out sick and losepay.

“It is because of what happenedin the last four years.

They should not take thatinto account.”

He recalled a garda involvedin a serious investigation,in which his family

had been threatened. Hewent off sick but, because ofprevious sick leave, was onhalf pay.

The issue was raised repeatedlyby AGSI officers at

their annual conference thisweek. AGSI vice-presidentAntoinette Cunninghamsaid they had sought four

times in the last seven weeksto meet Garda Commissioner

Noirin O’Sullivan onsick pay but to no avail.

She said frontlinemembers had been left withno definition of occupationalinjury, no guidelines as towhat constituted a criticalillness, and no policy onprevious injuries on duty.

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Saturday, 4th April 2015

2937th

Irish Times*Tuesday, 31 March 2015Page: 10


Garda bodywelcomesverdict inBailey caseGarda reputation helped by outcome ofhigh-profile cases, says AGSI chief

Commissioner criticised for not meetingassociation to discuss sick-pay issuesCONORLALLYCrime Correspondent

Garda sergeants and inspectorshave welcomed the verdictin the Ian Baileycase, sayingthey remained hopeful

that the murder ofSophieToscandu Plantier could still be

solved.The AssociationofGardaSergeants and Inspectors

(AGSI) has also praised theGarda members who broughtGraham Dwyer to justice forthe murder of Elaine O’Hara.

AGSI general secretaryJohn Redmond said gardaiworked as hard onother investigations,

though those effortswere rarely seen bythe public.“We don’t go trumpeting itfrom the rooftops - this justhappened to be higher-profileand that’s why it came to thefore,”he said at the opening ofthe association’s annual conference

in Trim, CoMeath.“We do this type of investigation

dayin, dayout, and it oftengoes unnoticed.”

Commenting on the verdictin the Ian Baileycase, in whicha High Court jury did not findin favour of Mr Bailey’sallegations

that the Garda Siochanahad conspired to implicatehim in Ms Toscan du Planner’s

murder, Mr Redmondsaid there were “nowinners”.

Garda reputation“The fact the jury found therewas no conspiracy; that’s important

for the reputation ofthe Garda organisation,” he

said. “An unfortunate incidentoccurred almost 20 years

ago. We still can’t forget awoman was murdered at thetime, and that case is still unsolved.

That has to continue tobe our priority as police.”

Mr Redmond said that nowallegations by Mr Baileyagainst some Garda membershad been rejected at the end ofa very lengthy trial, thoseagainst whom they were levelled

could “breathe easier”.He added that even though

a Garda member mayknow anallegation against them is unfounded,

the investigation ofsuch accusations was verystressful for those gardai andtheir families.

FocusedHowever, the force would remain

focused on the fact awoman had been murderedand that the killing was unsolved,

just as they had remainedfocused until Dwyer

was convicted. “[Gardai]workvery,very hard to bring perpetrators

to justice and to gatherevidence where they can, andthat will continue in this caseas well, and they will still aimto solve that case . . . Thereneeds to be closure for the family,”

he said.AGSI vice-president Antoinette

Cunningham criticisedGarda Commissioner Noiri'nO’Sullivan for her failure to

meet AGSIto clarifyissues relatingto sick pay. While Ms

O’Sullivanhad met the associationas recently as last month,

Ms Cunningham said AGSIhad been told by Minister forJustice

Frances Fitzgeraldthat no further progress couldbe made on the issues of concern

until an outstanding legalcase was dealt with in June.AGSIhas said it no longer hasinvolvement in the litigationand is urging Ms O’Sullivantomeet the association to address

questions about howgardai injured at work qualifyfor sick pay.

Ms Cunningham has saidthere was no clear definitionfor frontline members of “occupational

injury, no guidelinesonwhat constitutes a critical

illness[and]no policyin relationto previous injury on

duty which members are stillaffected by”.

II JohnRedmond;Garda focusedon solvingSophie Toscandu Plantier case

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30

Irish Times*Wednesday, 1 April 2015Page: 7


Garda Commissioner facescriticism on pace of reform

Disappointment with O’Sullivan'sfailure tomeet promises expressed at conferenceAGSIpresident voices frustration over lackof feedback from Garda managementCONOR LALLYCrimeCorrespondentThe slowpace of Garda reformunder Garda CommissionerNoirfn O’Sullivan has beenstrongly criticised bya group ofsergeants and inspectors.

The AssociationofGarda Sergeantsand Inspectors (AGSI)

said that, despite promises tothe contrary, changes to policing

remain chaotic and aremarked by a lack of consultation

with, and clear directionto, Garda members.

The association urged MsO’Sullivan, who was officiallyappointed last December, tostudy the management style ofMinister for Justice FrancesFitzgerald and to learn from it.

AGSI said it had been hopefula new era was beginning

when Ms O’Sullivan was appointedcommissioner, but it

had been left disappointed.In an address on the second

day of the association’s annualconference in Trim, Co Meath,AGSIpresidentTim Galvinsaidhe was frustrated at the unwillingness

of Garda managementtolistentothe association’sconcerns

on avariety of issues.These included the changes

to the Garda Act giving morepowers to the Garda Ombudsman,

as well as the much-criticisednew roster systems in the

force.

Shift patternsThe rosters involve long shiftpatterns followed by four daysoff,a systemwhichgardai claimis disrupting crime investigation

and has already been criticisedas unworkable by the Garda

InspectorateThe association wasalso concerned

at the lack of clarityaround how gardai injured inwork qualifyfor sickpay, saying

Garda members were sufferingfinancial hardship as a result.

The group said there is confusionover procedures around appointing

sergeants to superviserank-and-file gardai carryingout investigations, with neitherrank being informed about seniority

in some cases.The association said that its

members are being swampedbyadministrative duties, meaning

they have less time to offerhands-on supervision ofrank-and-file gardai.

AGgI also said that there arereal concerns that the Tetra radio

system used by Garda radioscould be adversely impacting

itsmembers’ health.The group said that MsO’Sullivan

has not been available tomeet with its members to heartheir input.

“Our requests for meetingswiththe Minister have been willingly

accommodated.“I am sorry to say that within

the Garda organisation nothinghas really changed. [MsO’Sullivan

was] appointed to the positionof commissioner but we

have to say your treatment ofthis association has in our opinion

[been] a disappointment.“Assurances of engagement

and meaningful input appear tobe idle words and promises.

“Wemust insist, commissioner,that your attitude to this association

changes. Don’t treatus like a nuisance because ifthat is your approach, that willbe our attitude.

“Can I suggest you take a leafout of the Minister’s book? Arrange

routine meetings on aquarterly basis.”

Heavily criticised

AGSI general secretary JohnRedmond said the organisationhad been heavily criticised bythe media following successivescandals.

While Ms O’Sullivanindicatedchange was needed, “the

pace of change isvery slow, andtoo slow for the public and forus”.

Mr Redmond said that whenMs O’Sullivan addressed theconference last year he felt anew era was starting.

“Unfortunately, that hasproven not to be the case.”

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Garda Commissioner Noirin2ҋ6XOOLYDQ at the Associationof Garda Sergeants andInspectors annual conferencein Trim, Co Meath.PHOTOGRAPH: BARRY CRONIN

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Wednesday, 1st April 2015

3137thIrish Independent Tabloid*Wednesday, 1 April 2015Page: 24


Gardai haven’t had tacticalfirearms training in 15yearsTonyBrady

LOCAL detectives are beingsent onto the streets to copewith armed incidents withoutany tactical training, accordingto gardai.

The last course in the tacticaluse of firearms was held in theGarda College 15 years ago, aconference was told.

And front-line garda supervisorsfear the lack of training

is putting detectives’ lives indanger.

The annual conference of theAssociation of Garda Sergeantsand Inspectors in Trim yesterday

unanimously backed motionsto increase the number of

gardai who are properly trainedand qualified to carry firearms.

DelegateMichael Hogan saidhe did not want to see the Gardabecoming an armed force butthey had to be realistic.

In any part of the country,day or night, a garda could befaced with an armed incident,involving criminals, who hadscant regard for the law.

“Criminals do not appear tohave any difficulty obtaining illegal

firearms. Theyare broughtinto the country illegallyand often

included in drug shipmentsas sweeteners to the deal.

“With a stolen high-poweredcar, they have no problem travelling

to any part of the countryto commit crime and we, as a

A motion to increase thenumber of armed gardai wasbacked at the conference.

force, should have the capacityand capability to deal with thisthreat.

“Unfortunately,this is not thecase,”he added.

Mr Hogan said membersof the regional support units(RSUs), set up in 2008, werehighly trained and did a superb

job.He said he was based in

Granard, CoLongford, and theunits for his region were locatedin Claremorris in Mayo andSalthill in Galway,both a longway from Granard.

The nearest RSU unit wasbased in Mullingar but it covered

the eastern region andcould be in Kilkenny on duty.

He said the RSUs stopped

work at 4am and if there wasan armed incident after that,there were insufficient armeddetectives in many areas toprovide cover.

Mr Hogan said every regulargarda unit in districts aroundthe country should be able toimmediately call on armedtrained and authorised gardai,should the need arise.

This would require financebut money should not be anissue. A core function of theGarda was the protection oflife and this must include gardalives as well.

Cork city delegate DannyCoholan, who is a member ofan RSUin the southern region,said local detectives carryingfirearms were regularly taskedwith providing close protectionfor VIPs,witnesses and personsunder threat but did not havethe training for that work.

“Following an increase ingangland and feuding activity,the standard response is toincrease armed patrols. Thosepatrols are carried out in theabsence of tactical training oraccess to greater levels of firepower

or less lethal weapons”.Mr Coholan said there was

an on-going operation at nightin Dublin and Cork city wherearmed coverup to 7amwas usually

provided by two detectives,in the absence of RSUor emergency

response unit personnel.

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Wednesday, April 1st 2015

32

The Star*Tuesday, 31 March 2015Page: 12


Gardabodycalls formerger

SENIOR gardaicalled for threewatchdogs — theGarda Ombudsman,the Garda Inspectorate

and the newGarda Authority —to be merged intoone body.

The Association ofGarda Sergeants andInspectors (AGSI)also criticised GardaCommissionerNoirin O’Sullivanfor failing to meetthem to discussissues around rostersand sicknessconditions.

The annual AGSIconference, whichbegan in CoMeath yesterday,

also called ^for pay cuts totalling

14 per centimposed on its members

over the pastseven years to bereversed.

RecruitAGSI general secretary

John Redmondsaid merging thethree garda watchdogs

into a singlebody would savemoney, which shouldbe used to recruitmore gardai.

The representativebody is also seekingincreased trainingfor officers who

carry firearms and aspecial driver’s permit

so that penaltypoints incurred inthe line of duty willnot appear on a garda’s

personal licence.The AGSI also said

it is very proud ofthe work carried outby the investigationteam at BlackrockGarda Station,which led to the conviction

of GrahamDwyer for the murder

of Elaine O’Hara.

ISSUES: Ms 2ҋ6XOOLYDQ

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3337thThe Herald - National Edition*Tuesday, 31 March 2015Page: 6


Gardai accuseboss of failingto engage withtheir concerns

TALKS: GardaSgt ClaireMulliganspeaking toSgt MichealMiney atthe AGSIconferencein Trim,Co Meath

and Inspectors (AGSI)was “totallyand utterly unacceptable,

disappointing, and more thana bit inconsiderate,” claimedthe association’svice presidentAntoinette Cunningham.

MEETINGMs Cunningham told the AGSIannual conference in Trim, CoMeath, that the association,which represents almost 2,400sergeants and inspectors, hadfailed on four occasions toorganise a meeting with thecommissioner.

The representatives are anx¬

ious to discuss concerns such assickpay,which affected not onlymembers but also their families.

Ms Cunningham said a smallgroup of association officialshad met with the commissioneron February 9 when she hadused the phrase “constructiveengagement”.

But since then, it was disappointingshe had left frontline

members with no definition ofoccupational injury, no guidelines

as to what constituted acritical illness, and no policyonprevious injuries on duty whichstill affect members.

Around 200 AGSImembersare currently affected by sickpay issues, and the associationargues that there has been noclarity issued by garda management

about matters that hadarisen from the introductionof sick pay legislation in thepublic service.

She urged Ms O’Sullivan totackle those issues with extreme

urgency, and to respectand acknowledge the role thatthe association could play inconsultative processes.

[email protected]

ByTomBradyGARDACommissioner NoirinO’Sullivanhas been criticised byrepresentatives of mid-rankinggardai for failingto engage withtheir concerns about sick payand other matters.

The commissioner’s failureto meet their representativeassociation on a number of occasions

and her lack of engagementwith the concerns of the

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#AGSI15

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Address by Mark Toland, Garda Inspectorate

National Executive and distinguished members. !ank you for inviting me to your conference.

Mark Toland Deputy Chief Inspector Garda Inspectorate.

I would like to start by saying that the Inspectorate and the AGSI Executive have regular meetings, which are never dull, we have lively exchanges, but with mutual respect and understanding.

I promise I will not Powerpoint you to death

I would like to keep my presentation relatively short to allow for questions and comments.

Garda Inspectorate is an independent oversight body that performs a similar function to HMIC with a main priority of ensuring that the Garda Síochána uses all available resources e#ciently and e"ectively.

MY JOURNEY Prior to the Inspectorate I served in the Metropolitan Police for 30 years. Clearly the %nest police service in the world that never made any mistakes and never had any negative press coverage. Actually, we made lots of mistakes. I have worked through very di#cult times. I remember a speci%c time around the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, through an enquiry in in 1999 when we were branded as racist and incompetent. Police o#cers were embarrassed to tell people what they did for a living. I also remember how we responded to that criticism, professionalised the way that murders were investigated and improved as a police service.

CAREERJust under one third of my service was spent as a guard – perhaps the time of greatest job satisfaction. Next 10 years as a sergeant, inspector and chief inspector. LAST 10 YEARS I joined the dark side and became a Supt, later retiring as a chief supt at Brent a supersized division in the North West of London and privileged to have Wembley Stadium as part of my last command. I led two major under-cover operations deploying police o#cers into the dangerous and dark world of organised drugs gangs who were involved in many murders. My grey hair is a bi-product of those operations and the daily worry about the safety of deploying undercover o#cers I made a promise to my family in back in 2005 that when I retired we would come and live in Ireland. My family moved to Mitchelstown in Cork in 2009 and I joined them 18 months later.

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Wembley Stadium and the Galtee Mountains are worlds apart, but working in a metropolitan city and living in rural Ireland has given me a good understanding of the rural and urban challenges that face policing in Ireland. I have never forgotten my roots of being a guard and I have a passion for delivering the best possible policing service. On a personal point I love people who work hard and I have a complete intolerance for lazy people and those who do not care about what they do.

RECENT AND CURRENT WORK OF THE INSPECTORATECrime Investigation was a 2 year detailed examination of a national police service Midway through we were asked to conduct the Haddington Road Review and towards the end of crime we were asked to look at the %ndings in the Sean Guerin Report.

As a result we visited all six regions, ten divisions, met with representatives from the other 18 and all national unitsWe have engaged some 1200 hundred sta"We engaged stakeholders representative associations, JPCs courts, probation, local authorities and HSE. We received a very detailed written submission from your association on HRR. !ere is a lot of synergy in that submission with our %ndings. Met with Victims of crime Attended Community meetings Submitted a number of detailed Information requestsCompleted a national Operational Deployment Survey on two days last August across 96 districtsExamined thousands of CAD/PULSE incidentsEngaged other police services in Scotland, PSNI, South Wales, other UK, Denmark, WA, NZ and US forces

THE CRIME REPORT provides clear pathway to develop a more e#cient police service delivering better crime investigation and service to victims of crime. !is is all about improving the Garda Síochána to deliver a world class service

THE HADDINGTON ROAD. Remit is to examine the structure, sta#ng and deployment of members and sta". It is in dra$ stage.

KEY FINDINGS FROM OUR WORKMany hard working people in the Garda Síochána – !e people we met are good people, honest about how your organisation operates and what could make it a better place to work. Our relationship with people on the ground &oor has always been positive, but with crime we were concerned about losing that relationship when we published a report that was critical in places – I will come back to that later

40

We found examples of good practice but not always shared We found an absence of national standards – If I transfer as a member from Dublin to Kerry I should use the same forms, same procedures and the same processes. But that is not always the case. As a victim I should receive the same high quality of service irrespective of where my crime is recorded.

We found inconsistencies in policing services 96 districts operating independently. Sometimes districts within the same division operate di"erently

We found de$ciencies in governance, supervision and systems – I would like to look at this in a little more detail

Policies - We found some excellent, well intentioned policies, but not always with training to support it, or additional resources to make it happen and it is o$en le$ to individual units, districts and divisions to make it happen. We also found an absence of central monitoring to ensure compliance

We found a regular absence of sergeants and inspectors on operational duties• I use the word absence because in many cases there was no unit sergeant or inspector. Or the sergeant was on duty, but tied up with admin or another station function, that stopped them from patrol• One division previously had 11 inspectors with one on all regular units. During the inspection visit they were down to 5 and no longer attached to regular units• s a Chief Supt I slept well at night, because I had sergeants and inspectors on duty to ensure calls from the public were dealt with properly and crime scenes were well managed.

We found an absence of daily brie$ng. All operational units should have a daily and be given at least one task to prevent crime and debriefed to make sure the work of the day is completed.

Poor IT systems in operation. Crime Investigation highlighted a number of concerns with the lack of IT and the use of systems. We are pleased that there is a strong commitment from the Justice Minister to secure funding for investment in IT infrastructure.

CRIME INVESTIGATION % WHAT DID WE FIND • Districts own all crimes • First responder is likely to be the investigator

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• Inexperienced gardaí investigating serious crime including rape and other serious assaults • No formal process for allocation of crime for investigation • Investigating many unsolvable crimes • High workloads – investigating old cases• Case management on paper %les• Organisational vulnerabilities with named suspects on PULSE in crimes that are not fully investigated - and who may go on to commit a further crime• We also found delays and lost opportunities in gathering best evidence such as CCTV and statements• Some cases had lapsed for prosecution opportunities

Greater Manchester Police conducted analysis of investigations and found that it took an average of 55 days to investigate a crime, but only 4.5 hrs actual investigation hours.

CRIME INVESTIGATION % WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE • Full time murder and serious crime investigation teams• Remove the majority of crime investigations from regular units• Create local volume crime investigation teams• Creation of Crime management units that have a formal process for allocating crime to skilled investigators. To allocate crimes that can be solved, to ensure that crimes are thoroughly investigated and to monitor the progress of investigations.

CRIME RECOMMENDATIONS• 200 main recommendations• 300 sub recommendations• 22 multi-agency recommendations to be led by the Dept of Justice and potentially by a new police authority • New models for policing divisions and the way that superintendents operate within that structure• Some recommendations have no %nancial cost – you could use CAD far better tomorrow morning without an additional cost e.g. Including time of arrivals and results to calls• We want to change the way that crime is managed to ensure consistency in decision making • We want to improve mobility of members by proving the latest car and mobile technology that reduces the need to return to the station and which provides members with immediate access to data and intelligencePerhaps the greatest vulnerability in IT is the lack of a national CAD system. !ere is no place in modern policing for recording calls and deployments on pieces of paper.

42

Most police services have had this technology for 30 yrs. Even in places operating CAD it is not always used e"ectively. For example the time of arrival is not always shown and calls are routinely closed with a result code of report to station when there is no report.

It is so important to record what the call was, who dealt with it, who was deployed, how long they spent and what the result was. In recent analysis we were told that while sergeants and inspectors may attend a serious call it is not always recorded.

Most garda districts still operate on paper records and very little information is recorded.

Crime Investigation Report raised a number of concerns about crime and incident recording practices. Inaccurate call demand data and inaccurate crime data a"ects resource allocation and deployment choices.

You will know that members constantly go back to the same places or deal with the same people, sometimes about the same issue. !ese take up a lot of garda time. Many police services have identi%ed repeat generators of calls and have plans in place to resolve underlying issues and stop further calls. We also found that you deal with lots of calls that should be managed by other agencies.

A frequently asked question - how many garda are required to police Ireland. Without accurate call demand and crime data it is very di#cult to say how many are required and in particular how many need to be on regular units and how many detectives are needed.

!e following areas featured in Crime Investigation Report that will be explored in far greater detail in our report on Haddington Road.

MY OWN EXPERIENCE.I had been an inspector for %ve years and had run several other units when I took over a Regular Unit without an inspector for the previous 6 months. !ey had a terrible reputation as being di#cult, lazy and not answering radios. I was very de&ated when I was told that it was a good challenge for me and that I was going to manage them. What did I %nd – A team without a leader, without direction, no one to brief and task, no one to motivate them and most of all no one to say well done. !e change in the team was dramatic, people assumed it was due to my excellent leadership. !is was by far the easiest team I have ever managed. !ey just needed a person to show interest in what they did, to attend serious incidents and to provide that front-line visible leadership.

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!ere is an absence in many places we visited including national units and divisions of an available sergeant or inspector to provide guidance, support inexperienced gardaí and ensure policy is implemented. You have the sergeants and inspectors with the skills to do this, but they need to be in the right place and present on a daily basis.

Senior managers engaging sta" is so important and in some places visited there is little interaction between senior gardaí and supervisors and sta". • I would like to talk about my own experience and what worked for me.• Every year I met with all 1,000 of my sta" for a whole day of engagement. Best investment I ever made • Monthly I met with supervisors that represented every unit on my division to discuss crime and performance• Twice a year I met with all 100 of my supervisors (o#cers and support sta") for a day to discuss policing plans, challenges for the year ahead • Every week including myself two of my senior managers were nominate to attend parades, to patrol, to drive cars and spend time with our sta"

I have never asked my sta" to do anything I would not still do myself. !e visibility of senior managers was the most crucial element of why my division was successful.

First encounter with a customer is critical and may well shape the long term view that the person has about policing. !is can be a caller to the station, a victim of crime or a member of the public asking for directions.

A survey conducted in the UK found that people thought the police did a good job until they came into contact with them.

!e Inspectorate has attended a number of community meeting to $nd out what the public want. !e relationship between community policing o#cers and the public is a very good one and one that people do not want to lose. Local communities want a more visible policing presence. !ey also want to be taken more seriously when they call to report incidents of anti social behaviour or other quality of life issues.

A recommendation in Crime Investigation included customer call backs to check the levels of service provided. !ese calls are generally well received by the public and quickly identi%ed those o#cers who always give an excellent service and the small number who do not. !at small number are the very people that leave customers dissatis%ed with the service they have received.

!e Inspectorate welcomes the role out of victim o#ces as a single point of contact for victims of crime.

44

Nice picture of John Jacob delivering an input to a sergeants promotion course. • I was the head of recruit training for the Met Police for 2 years and I understand the importance of good training.

• !e Crime Investigation report identi%ed concerns about accelerated recruitment and the quality of Foundation Training delivered between 2005/09. I don’t blame training sta", but the course was very academic and lacked practical training. Foundation training is what it says. A basic knowledge of law and procedures, but it needs to be supported on divisions by experienced tutors and sergeants to put the learning into practice.

• We also found detectives in post for many years without any formal investigative training. Some current gaps that we believe need to be $lled• CPD in many places is non-existent. You need to invest in people development• Need to explore other ways of delivering training such as computer based packages that people can complete at a time suitable to them • Pre-promotion training must be introduced and Pre–deployment training for roles such as detectives • You need a Talent Management Process to identify and develop leaders for the future• You need a promotion process that is seen to be fair and that does not post people all over the country

• Inspectorate welcomes the appointment of John Barrett. We have had several meetings and I know that these issues are very close to his heart.

!is is Garda Mark Irwin at the National Bravery awards 2014.

People in police services need to feel valued. Good work, brave actions and outstanding performance needs to be recognised.

Can I ask some questions.How many of you have received a long service medal. How many had those presented at a formal ceremony. How many had them handed to them and how received them in the post. How do you recognise the long service of police support sta".

My medal was presented to me by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service in front of my family and alongside police support sta" who were awarded a

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certi%cate of service.

How many of you here have written your own EPW1 forms. How many of your members have written their own forms.How many times have you regretted not submitting a report for someone that has completed an excellent piece of work. I know that I have

When was the last time that someone said thank you to you for a good piece of work.

My favourite ceremony was a my annual divisional commendation ceremony that I held to recognise the excellent work of police o#cers, police sta" and the public and we invited their families to celebrate with us.

I would like to $nish by re-stating that in all our visits we found an overwhelming workforce of good people trying to do their best.

I mentioned earlier, that I was concerned about the impact of the Crime Investigation report on our relationship with members. Not everyone will agree with everything said in that report, or the tone of some of the comments. But, is it an accurate assessment of the challenges that you face on a daily basis. My telephone started to ring the day a$er the publication of the report. All ranks up to Chief Supt – many said that we had always known this, but it needed to be said. We have had over 10,000 downloads of our report from our site alone.

I hope it is a catalyst for change to deliver a more visible policing presence and as described in your associations submission on Haddington Road to provide an adequately resourced, appropriately trained and properly supervised police service, which at all times has an awareness and concern for members welfare.

You may have seen that the Justice Minister has outlined that work will take place to examine the possibility of a multi- disciplined Criminal Justice Inspectorate.

We welcome the new police authority and look forward to working with them.

We will shortly publish the Haddington Road ReviewWe welcome the forthcoming legislation that empowers the Inspectorate to initiate their own inspections . We can use this to inspect areas of concern. !e Inspectorate is here to help and to ensure that we all maintain public con%dence in the wider criminal justice system.

!ank you for your time and I am happy to take any questions

46

Address by Martin Naughton, Glen DimplexMonday 30th March 2015

GOOD AFTERNOON,

I COME FROM A GARDA FAMILY, SO I FEEL VERY MUCH AT HOME HERE TODAY.

MY FATHER, MARTIN, SERVED IN DUNDALK, HE PASSED THE SERGEANT’S EXAM, BUT TURNED DOWN PROMOTION BECAUSE HIS 7 CHILDREN WERE IN EDUCATION IN DUNDALK. I HAD SEVERAL UNCLES IN THE FORCE.

CARMEL’S DAD, DENNIS McCARTHY WAS A SUPERINTENDENT IN GRANARD. DENNIS WHO WAS AN OLD IRA MAN WHO FOUGHT WITH TOM BARRY IN CORK.

HIS WIFE AND 8 CHILDREN WERE IN EDUCATION IN MONAGHAN TOWN, SO DENNIS LIVED DURING THE WEEK IN GRANARD, SPENDING THE WEEKEND IN MONAGHAN.

WHEN HE RETIRED HE WENT TO ZAMBIA TO HELP SET-UP THE POLICE FORCE IN THIS NEWLY INDEPENDENT COUNTRY. HE SPENT 10 YEARS THERE SERVING 2 TERMS. THERE IS A NICE STORY ABOUT DENNIS WHEN HE WENT TO LONDON FOR AN INTERVIEW - HE WAS ASKED A LOT OF QUESTIONS, SUCH AS WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES – READING

THAT WILL BE VERY GOOD AS YOU WILL SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN THE BUSHAND TELL ME MR McCARTHY HAVE YOU EVER BEEN UNDER FIRE?

DENNIS SAID, YOU HAVE BEEN ASKING ME A LOT OF QUESTIONS , CAN I ASK YOU ONE,

WHAT IS THE MONEY COMMISSIONER? HE SAID $75,000 P.A. TAX FREE AND $100,000 GRATUITY AT THE END OF THE TERM.

DENNIS SAID, VERY GOOD.A PER PRO YOUR LAST QUESTION, I HAVE BEEN UNDER FIRE, BUT NEVER FOR THAT KIND OF MONEY.

I NOW PLAN TO SHOW YOU OUR CORPORATE DVD WHICH TELLS THE STORY HOW THE GROUP GREW AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD AROUND US. THERE ARE MANY DATES WE ALL

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HAVE TRIGGER DATES – THE YEAR WE WERE BORN, LEFT SCHOOLSO WHEN YOU SEE THIS DVD THAT HAPPENED BEFORE I GOT MARRIED ETC.I WILL THEN AT THE END OF THE DVD FINISH BY SHARING A FEW IDEAS WITH YOU.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN RECOGNIZED FOR MYSELF.

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP I WAS KNOWN AS GUARD NAUGHTON’S SON.MY ONLY BROTHER IS A PRIEST, I USED TO BE INTRODUCED AS THE PRIEST’S BROTHER.

THEN WHEN I MARRIED, I BECAME CARMEL’S HUSBAND.WHEN WE HAD CHILDREN I WAS CALLED FIONA’S DAD. THE FINAL STRAW WAS LAST YEAR WHEN I HAD A SILLY ACCIDENT AND BROKE MY HIP AND ENDED UP IN ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY IN CASTLEBAR.

THE SURGEON ARRIVED READING A MESSAGE ON HIS PHONE. EVEN THOUGH I AM HANGING ON TO LIFE BY A THREAD HE IGNORED ME, BUT WENT AND SAID TO CARMEL I HAVE JUST HAD A MESSAGE FROM MY WIFE TELLING ME I HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT PATIENT THAT I MUST LOOK AFTER AS HE IS SEAN LYSAGHT’S GRANDAD. CONSIDERING THIS YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW GOBSMACKED I WAS TO BE INVITED TO SPEAK TO THIS ILLUSTRIOUS GROUP.

I WAS BORN IN DUBLIN AT THE START OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR WHICH IN IRELAND WAS CALLED THE EMERGENCY. BOMBS WERE DROPPED ON DUBLIN, SO MY DAD, WHO WAS IN THE D.M.P AND MY MUM WHO WAS AN IRISH BORN AMERICAN CITIZEN BROUGHT THEIR LITTLE FAMILY TO THE COUNTRY FOR SAFETY.

I JOINED THE DE LA SALLE SCHOOL IN DUNDALK IN BABIES WITH OVER 100 OTHER BOYS.12 OF US DID INTER CERT8 DID LEAVING CERTOVER 90% DID NOT FINISH 2ND LEVEL EDUCATION, THAT WAS IRELAND THEN.

AFTER LEAVING CERT I WENT TO SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND AND STUDIED AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING SWITCHING TO MECHANICAL.

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5 YEARS LATER, AFTER I QUALIFIED, I RETURNED TO IRELAND AS WAS ALWAYS MY INTENTION AS IT IS THE INTENTION OF MOST IMMIGRANTS. IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE SEAN LEMASS ERA WHEN INWARD FOREIGN INVESTMENT WAS BEING ATTRACTED INTO IRELAND BY A PACKAGE OF CHEAP LABOUR, TAX AND OTHER INCENTIVES.

A DOZEN YEARS AFTER RETURNING HOME I SET UP A NEW COMPANY AND THE REST IS HISTORY. IT IS EASY TALKING OVER PINTS OR A GLASS OF WINE ABOUT SETTING UP YOUR OWN BUSINESS, IT IS A DIFFERENT MATTER GIVING UP A JOB, PENSION AND GOING INTO THE COLD WORLD, BUT THAT IS WHAT I DID. SO, FOR OVER 60 YEARS I HAVE WATCHED IRELAND BEING TRANSFORMED FROM A POOR AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY INTO A HIGH TECH ECONOMY COMPETING ON THE WORLD STAGE. NOT JUST A DIFFERENT COUNTRY, BUT A DIFFERENT PLANET.

WHERE THIS COUNTRY IS NOW IS NOT ITS DESTINATION, WE ARE STILL ON A JOURNEY.

DURING MY LONG BUSINESS LIFE WHAT HAVE I LEARNED I SUSPECT VERY LITTLE, I SPOKE AT A BUSINESS CONFERENCE LAST YEAR ANDGAVE THEM 10 IDEAS FOR RUNNING A BUSINESS, ALMOST THE 10 COMMANDMENTS, SOME OF THESE APPLY TO MANY WALKS OF LIFE.

1. IN BUSINESS THE ONLY GOLDEN RULE IS, THERE IS NO GOLDEN RULE

2. ALWAYS PLAY FAIR. YOUR HANDSHAKE OR YOUR WORD IS A CONTRACT INTEGRITY IN BUSINESS IS THE ONLY WAY

3. WE HAVE 2 POCKETS A PERSONAL POCKET AND A BUSINESS POCKET NEVER MIX THEM UP 4. AT THE END OF NEGOTIATIONS LEAVE A LITTLE ON THE TABLE, BOTH SIDES MAY NOT BE TOTALLY HAPPY, BUT ARE SATISFIED THAT THE DEAL IS FAIR.

5. TURNOVER IS VANITY, PROFIT IS SANITY. ALWAYS FOCUS ON THE BOTTOM LINE.

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STAY NERVOUS IRRESPECTIVE OF HOW GOOD YOUR PERFORMANCE IS NEVER BE SATISFIED, IT’S NEVER GOOD ENOUGH. ALWAYS REMAIN WORRIED.

6. IF YOU DON’T INNOVATE YOU WILL EVAPORATE CHANGE IS WITH US – GRASP IT.

7. GROW WITHIN YOUR OWN RESOURCES FINANCIAL RESOURCES MANAGERIAL RESOURCES NO ONE EVER STARTED A LARGE COMPANY. THE BIGGEST CORPORATIONS IN THE WORLD STARTED IN A SHED OR AN OFFICE SOMEWHERE. 8. THE MOST IMPORTANT WORD IN MANAGEMENT IS CARE, IF YOU CARE ENOUGH ABOUT ANYTHING YOU WILL NEVER ALLOW IT TO GO WRONG. CARE FOR YOUR BUSINESS CARE FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES CARE FOR YOUR SUPPLIERS CARE FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS

IN FACT, NOTHING IS TOO MUCH TROUBLE FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS, THEY PUT THE FOOD ON THE TABLE. REMEMBER THINGS DON’T HAPPEN, PEOPLE MAKE THINGS HAPPEN THINGS DON’T GO WRONG, PEOPLE ALLOW THINGS TO GO WRONG. 9. A COMPANY BELONGS TO A LOT MORE PEOPLE THAN THE OWNERS. AND FINALLY NO. 10, THE PERSON THAT CAN’T DELEGATE IS A NUISANCE. BE A TEAM BUILDER. THE BIGGEST MOTIVATION FOR EVERYONE IS ‘I WANT TO BE IMPORTANT’. SOME YEARS AGO I WROTE TO ALL OUR MANAGERS IN THE GROUP SAYING I WAS TAKING A BACK SEAT.

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CARMEL OVERHEARD OUR SONS, NEIL AND FERGAL, TALKING TO SOMEONE WHO SAID, ‘I HEAR YOUR DAD IS TAKING A BACKSEAT’, FERGAL ANSWERED, INDEED HE IS, BUT HE’S BROUGHT THE STEERING WHEEL WITH HIM.

THAT IS NOT TRUE I REALLY BELIEVE IN DELEGATING. GOING FORWARD MY PRIORITIES ARE MY FAMILYMY BUSINESSMY COUNTRY

WHAT EVER TIME I HAVE LEFT I WANT TO SPEND MOST OF IT HELPING ALL 3 TO PROSPER.

YOU ARE ALL MANAGERS, LEADERS.

I AM A JUNKIE FOR BRAND NAMES – IT TAKES A LIFETIME AND A FUTURE TO BUILD A BRAND – IT CAN BE DESTROYED VERY QUICKLY.

I WOULD LIKE TO BELIEVE OUR BRANDS MEAN –QUALITYDEPENDABILITYAFTER SALES CARE

MY DEAR OLD PAL, DON KEOUGH, WHO DIED A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, MAY GOD BE GOOD TO HIM, WAS A GREAT FRIEND OF IRELAND AND THE BOSS OF COCA COLA WORLDWIDE FOR MANY YEARS, DON USED TO SAY

EVERYDAY I GO INTO THE OFFICE I WANT TO POLISH OUR BRAND,MAKE IT SHINE A LITTLE BRIGHTER, SPARKLE JUST A LITTLE MORE.

AN GHARDA SIOCHANA IS A GREAT TRUSTED BRAND, PROTECT YOUR BRAND. DON’T LET ANYONE EVER TARNISH IT.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

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General Secretary AddressBy John Redmond

Colleagues,

I want to address you today on the past year’s activities from the Association’s point of view; and to set out also where we are heading for into the future. Especially in light of the European decision in our favour in 2014.

Initially, I want to mention the Sickness Legislation and the Roster – both of these topics will be dealt with separately immediately a$er I %nish this address by Vice-President Antoinette Cunningham who will address you on the Sickness Legislation and Deputy General Secretary, John Jacob from the Rosters Working Group.

!is time last year we were about to face into negotiations with both the Garda Inspectorate and the Independent Reviewer appointed to examine the Garda issues within the Haddington Road Agreement.

As you know the Inspectorate is charged with reporting to the Minister and it was expected that their work would have been completed last month (February 2015). As you can see, that deadline has now passed. Mark Toland from the Garda Inspectorate will address Conference on Wednesday morning and will bring you up to speed on their current work. He may even be able to give some high level hints as to what they are doing under the framework of Haddington Road. We of course eagerly await their report and more importantly eagerly await their suggestions as to how things can be improved. Just to remind you – the Garda Inspectorate are tasked with reviewing all aspects of operations and administration within An Garda Síochána and in particular:

1. !e structure, organisation and sta#ng, and2. !e deployment of members and civilian sta" to relevant and appropriate roles.

AGSI meets with the Inspectorate on a regular basis and I’d like to think we enjoy a good relationship with them. We made a submission to them under the Review and that submission was circulated to you and remains available on the AGSI website.

At a meeting with the Minister for Justice last Monday, she stated that she feels the Inspectorate will %nish their work and report to her a$er Easter. She committed to sharing the report with the Associations without undue delay following that.

!e other aspect for review under the Haddington Road Agreement is being dealt with by Mr. Ray McGee - a former Labour court Chairman. Mr. Ray McGee is examining:

1. !e remuneration and conditions of service of members in An Garda

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Síochána including an evaluation of annualised hours/ shi$ pay arrangements,

and

2. !e appropriate structures and mechanisms for the future resolution of matters relating to pay, industrial relations and attendant matters.

!e Association has met with Mr. McGee on a number of occasions since his appointment. At each meeting we enquire about the interaction that he has had with the Department and what progress he has made on the issues he is tasked with examining. I’m sorry to say that we have nothing concrete to tell you about at this stage. I can’t say where the de%cit is – but we continue to push both the Department and Mr. McGee to produce something. You will accept that the Associations are reluctant to make any written submission to Mr. McGee in advance of seeing what the Department has to say about the issues under examination. Colleagues, the Haddington Road Agreement is due to end o#cially in June 2016 - although for all intents and purposes it ends in December 2015. You will have heard that social partners are talking about talks to be held to achieve an acceptable successor to the Agreement. !e o#cial talks on this are expected to begin in May and be completed by Budget day 2015. Where does AGSI $t into this?

You know that the European Social Committee made its decisions last year and transmitted those decisions to Government in January 2014. !e Workplace Relations Bill was published last year as well. !is is coincidental to the decision by Europe but it is timely from our point of view. !e Bill will streamline the Labour Relations processes and procedures and incorporate all employee bodies under one umbrella.

At a meeting with Minister Fitzgerald in January 2015, the Association was assured that the Bill would encompass the AGSI in light of the EU decision. At the meeting last Monday with the Minister, the Association looked for clearer information on the matter and again was assured that the Bill was intended to provide for AGSI and An Garda Síochána as well as other employees. On pushing the department for particulars, we were informed that the advice of the Attorney General was awaited as to how precisely the Bill would work for us. Reference was made to S8 or the Industrial Relations Act 1990. Section 8 deals speci%cally with De%nitions within the Act. One de%nition refers to ‘workers’. !e de%nition reads: “Worker” means any person who is or was employed whether or not in the employment of the employer with whom a trade dispute arises, but does not include a member of the Defence Forces or of the Garda Síochána.

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While the Department is not being very clear about the Association and its future under the Workplace Relations Bill, we in AGSI are quite clear. !e decisions made by the European Social Committee in Complaint 83/2012 must be implemented by Government.

Leaving that part aside, a more pressing matter is the successor to the Haddington Road Agreement. As you can appreciate delegates, the Association has yet to develop a speci%c position which will be adopted going into any talks which may take place - purely because there is little more than speculation at this stage. We are sure of one thing though – we will seek a restoration of the cuts to our pay. !e ESRI told us last Wednesday that the country is two years ahead of its projections regarding employment and the %scal de%cit position. You will recall that when Haddington Road was ‘agreed’ the Government continuously referred to getting the de%cit to 0.3% by the end of 2018. All the signs now are that this position will be reached in 2016 and that unemployment will fall to single %gures of 8% for the %rst time in 8 years between now and 2016.

Based on these statistics, the Government will have to accept that the ‘emergency’ is over. What must follow is the repeal of the so-called Emergency legislation - the Public Sector Pension Reduction and the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest – that are no longer in the public interest. !e universal social charge must be reduced signi%cantly. Pay must be restored. !ese important matters must be addressed in any successor to the Haddington Road Agreement. I want to mention GSOC :

Colleagues, the Garda Act introduces extended powers for GSOC. !ese were resisted by AGSI but to no avail. We have concerns about the surveillance powers and the power of investigations.

Section 5 substitutes a new de%nition of ‘‘enactment’’ in section 98(5) of the Principal Act. At present section 98(5) prevents GSOC from exercising police powers under the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages (Regulation) Act 1993 and the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009. !e new de%nition removes these restrictions and the appropriate functions will be available to GSOC in criminal investigations.

!e second cause for concern under the Act is the power now to investigate where:• !e o"ence or behaviour concerned may also involve or have involved a person who is not a member of the Garda Síochána.

!is is wide open in terms of what it means for families of members who are under

54

investigation. I need not go into the speci%cs here. Su#ce to say that AGSI is not pleased with this development.Finally on GSOC, I want to remind you of the stand taken by AGSI regarding the alleged bugging and communications gaps in the GSOC o#ces. AGSI were to the forefront in calling for a full disclosure from GSOC about his matter. We also suggested that the Chairman consider his position in light of the actions he took in examining whether the o#ces were bugged or not. He engaged a company from outside this jurisdiction to carry out the work. To us, that placed the information stored by GSOC potentially in the hands of people outside those who it was intended for. We asked the relevant questions of the Department, the Commissioner and GSOC at the time – we asked:

• What safeguards were in place to protect the privacy of the information on AGSI members which GSOC had stored; • Did the company have access to that information; • What did they do with the information and was the information taken or downloaded by the company.

It’s no surprise that we didn’t get any answers from any quarter on any of the questions above.

As you are aware now regarding GSOC Mr. O Brien has gone away to pastures new. !e questions that we asked however have not gone away. But don’t hold your breath expecting an answer.

Just to remind you colleagues of our position regarding GSOC – and remember AGSI was the %rst Association to call for the establishment of an INDEPENDENT complaints investigative body. We recognised that as long as you have Gardaí investigating Gardaí, there is space for a perception to be created that such investigations are &awed. !e public is entitled to expect a transparent and independent mechanism to investigate complaints. GSOC is not such a body. We continue to raise concerns that Gardaí still investigate Gardaí. !is should stop. Garda Management

Many would say An Garda Síochána is broken. I’m not sure I would agree with that sentiment. But I would agree that things have to change. !e perception that the corporate image of An Garda Síochána is more important than the people who deliver the day-to-day service in the ranks is something that I think must be addressed by the Commissioner and the Minister.

Frontline members of the force, including you, are facing a barrage of criticism from all sections of the media and public perception is blurred. However what is important

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to point out to all concerned is that structures, systems and infrastructures within An Garda Síochána are not %t for purpose. You have asked us to lobby for change and we have taken on that mantle and have communicated this very strongly to Management and the Department. You have been, and continue to be, willing to upskill, iterate and pivot to re&ect any change in the organisation. But the pace of change is very slow, and too slow for the public and for us.

While Garda management continue to heap additional work on you, they will not o"er much support to you by way of training and development. We have a new executive Director of HR and personnel development recently appointed. I’m sure like me, you are eager to see what changes that new person will bring – particularly in light of the new designation as ‘personnel development’ lead.

For far too long colleagues, we in the AGSI have knocked on the doors of power and o"ered our support to Management in developing An Garda Síochána. For far too long we have been grudgingly tolerated by management who see little or no bene%ts from developing relationships with the Association. I thought that having listened to our Commissioner last year at Conference, we were about to enter a new era. Unfortunately, that has been proven not to be the case. We have been told at meetings that we will be welcome contributors as ‘constructive engagement’ advocates. If I translate that, it means that we must put up and shut up, or tell the bad golfer what a great shot he took – even though we know it wasn’t. Well, your Executive will not engage in kow-towing and do#ng our cap to those who would like us to exist merely to do that. We will not tell Management what a great job they’re doing when we know that is not the case. And by the way, that’s what we have been doing recently regarding their assigning of supervisor designation to you

So colleagues, it’s timely that the EU decided in our favour regarding our rights to negotiate. It’s an advantage to have a Minister who will listen to your views and meet with AGSI. It is favourable to have the Garda Inspectorate, which listens to you and your opinions – even though we may not agree with everything they say.

We have a way to go. We look forward to the arrival of the much-anticipated Garda Authority. We look forward to changes in legislation, which will see the EU decision enshrined in law. We look forward to the penny dropping with management that we must be treated with respect and accepted as having legitimacy when it comes to representing you and other men and women who are members of this Association.

And Finally colleagues, enjoy Conference today and tomorrow. Get involved and debate the issues that are important to you.

And I look forward to continuing to represent you in all our dealings with Government.

!ank you.

56

Commissioner you are very welcome to our conference this a$ernoon at the Knightsbrook, Hotel, Trim.

!is time last year Commissioner, you had just taken up your role as interim Commissioner. You stood at our conference podium and spoke for over thirty minutes on how you proposed to change the organisation, increase the amount of consultation and engagement with the sta" associations and involve us all in improvements across An Garda Siochana. You referred constantly to service provision and what was expected of us all in providing a policing service to the public. When you had %nished I stood up and asked you to make sure that members of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors would have real involvement in the changes that were coming. I also asked that there would be real engagement in the major changes that would impact on the members of our association. You assured us Commissioner that there would be a big change and that our involvement would be to the forefront of that change.

Unfortunately Commissioner I can’t report to this conference that this engagement has been altogether forthcoming.

Partnership Commissioner is a two way street. It needs both sides to actively be involved so that problems can be solved and agreements reached. Partnership is not being actively pursued by you and your management team. !e Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors is constituted by statute to allow us to negotiate on behalf of our members in relation to pay and conditions. !e memorandum of understanding was agreed a$er discussion with the Minister allowing us as representatives to have certain rights. !ese rights are currently being ignored in a lot of instances.

Contrast you approach with that of our new Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald.

Our requests for meetings with the Minister have been willingly accommodated. We have made submissions on matters that are directly impacting on our members and invited to make suggested changes to legislation that will assist our members in providing a quality service.

I am sorry to say that within the Garda Organisation nothing has really changed. You were appointed to the position of Commissioner but we have to say your treatment of this association has in our opinion a disappointment.Initially we were optimistic that under your stewardship there would be a real level of engagement and the early signs were good. You kick started review of !e Pilot roster and the suitability of the roster to provide the service expected of An Garda Siochana. Real engagement took place over a number of months. Dealing with this mater speci%cally now that I have mentioned it; there was an urgency for the negotiating teams to reach agreement and the Chairman pressed for agreement in December. Since

Address to Commissioner Nóirín O Sullivanby President Tim Galvin

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then AGSI appear to be the only Association who have progressed this matter. We heard nothing since then and despite requests for a meeting to move the stalled process we were only o"ered a meeting last week for the 7th April, over three months since negotiations have conclude. We are still not aware of Managements position or the position of the other Associations. !is is a ridiculous situation to %nd ourselves in. Commissioner, can you tell us what your position is in relation to the proposals brought forward in Westmanstown? What do you intend to do to progress the debate? We are now in the third extension to the pilot. Our members, indeed all Gardaí, need certainty.

Getting back to the issue of engagement and our involvement in the change process. We are beginning to think that’s it’s all rhetoric. We discovered in June that there was proposed changes to PULSE and our members work practices with the implementation of new IOS’s. No engagement rather a declaration of the imminent implementation of these changes. We had to highlight our issue with the Minister before there was meaningful engagement. Another example of unful%lled commitments Commissioner is you assurances to this association that there would be no piecemeal implementation of new initiatives. However, this continues unabated with the implementation of the supervision of crime investigation process. Delays in the issuing of organisation policy saw individual managers interpreting internal limited correspondence from your management team. No uniform approach, no policy, but worse no engagement with this Association whose members were directly impacted and who were expected to make a poor process work e"ectively. Can I remind you Commissioner of your commitment to this association at a meeting in November. You will recall that you arranged the meeting but subsequently were unavailable until AGSI made a decision that we would not engage with your representatives. At that meeting you assured AGSI that while there would be change there would be no piecemeal implementation of new initiatives. We know that you are entitled to bring policies and procedures forward as the head of the organisation. However, assurances of engagement and meaningful input appear to be idle words and promises. !is Association has a tradition of being constructive. Given a chance to engage we are satis%ed that we can assist you in delivering change that is sympathetic to our members concerns and yet e"ective in delivering a quality service. We must insist Commissioner that your attitude to this Association changes. Don’t treat us as a nuisance, because if that is your approach that will be our attitude. Treat us as a key cog in the proper functioning of the police service. Treat us as a valuable asset with a wealth of experience that can improve operational processes and procedures. Recognise us for what we are, a key in&uencer within the organisation structure who can assist you in achieving your goal of a better organisation. I am calling on you now Commissioner to implement a proper consultative process. Can I suggest that you take a leaf out of the Minsters book? Arrange routine meetings on a quarterly basis. Hear our concerns and listen to our input. Use this association to best e"ect, create a partner in change. To quote JF Kennedy “We cannot negotiate with those who say “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable. Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate”

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Turning now to supervision.

We learned from Guerin that Sergeants were not doing their main role of supervision of Gardai on the frontline. !is was not news for AGSI. We were well aware of the absence of adequate supervision brought about by increased administrative demands on Sergeants and Inspectors. Administration has a role to play in the overall investigative process. However, good administration will not remedy errors made at the initial stages of an investigation. !ese errors can to a large degree be avoided if there is adequate supervision of operational personnel on the street and at the scene of incidents. !is key element of supervision is being lost because of administrative demands on Sergeants and Inspectors. If there was no other reason to engage with this Association this would be su#cient. It is critical that supervision takes place at all stages of an investigation, the initial stage, the investigative stage, the prosecution stage. Our members are well skilled to perform this role given the opportunity, training and tools to do so. At this point Commissioner AGSI would like to say we welcome the Commission of Investigation established under Justice O’Higgins. AGSI believe this will be an opportunity to make %ndings of fact and will give our members the opportunity to present their side of things. Commissioner you will be well aware of the European Social Committee decision in relation to our right to proper access to the industrial relations mechanisms of the state. You will also be well aware that we have for a long time been unhappy with the Conciliation process. We were even more disappointed with the process when you decided to dilute your involvement in the whole process by nominating a Chief Superintendent as your representative at this council.

!e practice before this has always been the Assistant Commissioner in HR attends on your behalf with one or two exceptions where expertise in a certain %eld was required. !e concern from this association is that you are devaluing the process and placing yourself a one remove from the Associations and engagement with us. Yet again evidence that your approach to engagement with this Association is in stark contrast with that of our Minister.

Commissioner over the last few years this association has highlighted the need for a vigorous and robust level of welfare for the members we represent. You have told us on more than one occasion that this is a priority but we seem to have had no progress. !e welfare working group has not met and we are now heading for year six of the discussions. !e service is crying out for improvement and upgrading. !e type of welfare required is increasing because society has changed. Previously welfare was required in the main to do with the roles we carry out, now the welfare required covers %nancial, emotional and mental health assistance. !e organisation is more diverse and the issues are constantly changing. Somebody needs to take responsibility for the lack of updated welfare policies and bring our welfare systems into the 21st century. It is currently struggling to carry out its role and function because the upgrading of the service has been le$ in abeyance for far too long.

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Associated with this is the increasing workload being placed on welfare sta". !e introduction of the Public Service Management (Sick Leave) Regulations 2014 twelve months ago has been the cause of concern for our members. We are all aware of the position the four associations were forced into taking in an attempt to safeguard our then existing conditions. Existing policies in the Garda organisation has not helped the transition to the new process. !ere is no explanation why twelve months a$er its introduction there has been no meetings between the sta" associations and your management team to look at the scheme and address the issues created by the absence of an occupational injury de%nition. Commissioner this is not good enough. We have people through no fault of their own currently on half pay or pensionable rate of pay, even worse no pay because the existing Garda policies are failing them. Our people, YOUR sta", who have su"ered critical illness a number of years before the introduction of the legislation are being adversely impacted by these new regulations. Our people, YOUR sta" who are unable to work because of work related stress are being disadvantaged and su"ering %nancially because of the failure of your organisation to properly categorise illness su"ered on duty as occupational injury. AGSI has written on numerous occasions looking for meetings in relation to the sickness legislation. All of our letters have been returned with an acknowledgement of our letter. It is like Deja vous. I highlighted this problem last year and I am calling on you Commissioner to address this issue immediately. De%ne occupational injury and deal with the issue at hand. !e time has long passed since this should have been dealt with. It falls to YOU Commission to address this issue, you can’t ignore it in the hope someone else will sort it out, it’s your responsibility. People are su"ering enormous %nancial hardship through pay cuts and levies please do not add to their problems by not dealing with the sickness legislation. We can alleviate some of the additional stress being placed on members and their families by getting the working group together and %nalising a de%nition for occupational injury.I am glad to see new blood come into An Garda Siochana through the 300 students currently in the Garda College. It has completely changed the atmosphere in the college and given the sta" both old and new a challenge going forward. During the course of negotiations into how students would be developed and discussions on the training review report there were frank and sometimes heated debates on what was best for everyone. We are close to agreement and look forward to those same students arriving at stations to give people a boost in May of this year. !is is only one aspect of training however. In divisions we are slowly seeing the introduction of training. ASP, pepper spray, level one interviews and some custody management training has been introduced. !e problem is that it varies from division to division. !e situation cannot continue which sees Chief Superintendents/Divisional O#cers veto training because it is not a high priority for them. !is situation can be remedied by centralising training budgets in the Garda College. !e college can coordinate training across the country with the assistance of the CPD sta" in each division. !is would guarantee that everyone is getting the necessary education and would upskill people on an ongoing basis. !is is essential to ensure a consistent approach to training. Legislation is changing almost daily. It is disappointing

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Commissioner to report that many of our members read about legislative change it in the papers. !e only system within the organisation to update people on the legislative changes is to publish it on the portal on some occasion’s months a$er it is introduced. !is is an unsatisfactory way of communicating with your members in relation to important matters such as legislative change. It certainly cannot be considered to any degree to be training. Reading something is not training. YOU had an opportunity since the introduction of the roster and the cross over periods to have short training interventions but unfortunately YOU have not taken this opportunity.

Discipline is a growing industry within the Garda organisation and it appears to be concentrated at Sergeant and Inspector rank. Needless to say this is a cause of growing concern for our members who are working in poor conditions, o$en without su#cient resources and regularly without proper management support. If I can highlight how AGSI seen this new approach to discipline manifesting itself. A recent HQ Directive 87/14 dealing with the treatment of persons in custody regulations and the proper completion of custody records guaranteed discipline if any issues arose around the management of prisoners. We are satis%ed that improved policies in many areas coupled with a proper training regime would provide safeguards for members and reduce the likelihood of them being exposed to discipline. !is is something that needs to be urgently addressed Commissioner and I am calling on you to examine this area immediately. !e practice of disciplining a Sergeant for failing to adequately supervise a Garda is common place at present. I would suggest that a better way of dealing with this issue is to provide refresher training and upskilling to our members rather than discipline them for system failures which could be addressed by more resourcing and better training.

!e Tetra Communication system is one of the tools given to members of An Garda Siochana to carry out the role and function. However a number of studies have been carried out since kin relation to the non-ionising waves and the damage they can cause to the human body. !ese electromagnetic waves can suppress the immune system within the body and can cause heart, blood and bone marrow problems. !e reports also say they cause tumours, sleep deprivation, depression and memory loss. !e list of possible e"ects is very large. Some doctors recommend that the tetra handset should not be in contact with the body when switched on. !e current safety limit only measures heat. Within An Garda Siochana there is a lack of information and up to date research on the use of Tetra and its e"ects on the people who use it. YOU have a responsibility to keep your personnel up to date on the implications of using the equipment contrary to policy. I don’t think you are working hard enough in this area. Additionally, you must look at how the use of this technology can be limited to reduce unnecessary exposure to harmful radio waves. In this regard you must examine the suitability of the radio as a ‘mobile device’ for contacting GISC as a matter of urgency. !ere other less harmful technologies available. Commissioner I must ask what monitoring is in place currently as a result of Tetra’s own documentation

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about exposure. I call on you as a matter of urgency to begin research and establish what these e"ects are for those of us who use Tetra in our everyday work environment.

AGSI have corresponded with you recently in relation to our concerns about how some people are using social media as a tool to intimidate our members. !is is an area of great concern to us and we are anxious that you are aware of these concerns. I understand that you have set up a number of incident rooms to carry out investigations into a number of incidents that have occurred at various protests across the city. Can you con%rm that this is in fact the case? Can you also assure us that where there is clear evidence of intimidation or harassment against our members that appropriate prosecutions will take place.

Commissioner, as you are aware the Garda organisation is loosing approximately 30 people per month across all ranks. In addition to losing a hugh corporate knowledge we have fewer people to provide a service to the public. !ere are ever increasing demands on our organisation and as a consequence resources are stretched to breaking point at times. Heretofore there was scope to back %ll with overtime but that is no longer available. What is also missing it a clear deployment model. Some of our District and Divisional headquarter stations across the country are %nding it more di#cult to put out the even the most basic of policing services on a daily basis. Not only is this unfair to supervisors and operational Gardaí alike, because of it exposes them to greater risks, it is also unfair on the public who expect the same level of service as they did when the organisation strength was at 14,500. We are currently 12,800. Commissioner it will be too late to say were under resourced when the con%dence of the public in the Gardaí is lost. It will be too late blame under resourcing when one of you sta" is seriously injured or worse. Privately your senior managers will acknowledge to this Association that they recognise we have a sta" shortage, however no one wants to state it publically. Commissioner, everyone in this room recognises that we are struggling with a lack of resources as so to do many of your senior team. Why therefore are you reluctant to say what everyone is thinking privately? Now is your opportunity. !ere is a long lead time to getting people through training. Calling for extra resources when the quality of service has fallen to unacceptable levels is too late. AGSI have regularly called for a recruitment strategy that matches new Gardaí with the attrition rate. We are losing more now than we are taking in now is the time to commence work on that strategy.

I reiterate what I said at this podium last year, AGSI has no wish to be in con&ict with you or your management team. AGSI wish to engage with you meaningfully, to deliver positive changes for An Garda Siochana and for the members we represent and the public we serve.

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TETRA Health & Safety Concerns Address to Conference by Willie GleesonAs a lay man in introducing the subject of the health and safety concerns of TERRESTRIAL TRUNKED RADIO – the TETRA system I welcome Dr. L.O. Stromberg from the Swedish Institute of Technology KTH and thank him for accepting our invitation to address our conference. Shortly Dr. Stromberg will address you as a renowned expert in this area.

We are indeed very fortunate to have such an expert address conference. I also acknowledge the work of Professor Barrie Trower who previously prepared an expert submission for the Police Federation of England and Wales and the other professionals credited in Dr. Trower’s report.

!e TETRA radio system works on Electromagnetic Waves. !e number of waves per second determines the frequency. !e International unit of frequency is Hertz (Hz). !e Stewart Committee in the United Kingdom recommends less than 16 waves per second. TETRA pulses at 17.6 waves per second. Because the TETRA signal is pulsed rather than even, it may be more powerful than the average mobile phone. Prolonged use of TETRA may heat up parts of the body and these heat shock proteins may protect cancer cells in addition to protecting good cells. Electromagnetic waves enter the body and an electric current is generated inside our bodies. Each particle carries momentum and TETRA carries 400 MHz per second. !is can suppress the immune system.

Melatonin naturally scavenges cancer cells through our closed eyes when sleeping. If sleeping within range of a TETRA transmitter the microwave radiation may act on the pineal gland and suppress the night time melatonin to day time levels.

!e TETRA project presentation to EUROCOP in Berlin in October 2014 delivered by Professor Stromberg and Hans Olsson of the Swedish Police Union included a dedication to Swedish Police O#cer Roger Carlstrom who died a few weeks earlier due to an incurable brain tumour. Roger believed his tumour was caused by daily use of TETRA. !e EuroCOP presentation details the lack of information and a lack of support from the National Police Board in relation to TETRA. !e Union awarded a three-year contract to the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology to help them investigate this issue professionally and impartially. !at contract has been extended by a further three years.

I am not an expert on microwave radiation, Dr. Stromberg is, but I do believe serious questions have been raised of our TETRA system. !e health and safety of our members is too important to take a chance of even a small risk of side e"ects. What if the risk is much greater?

On the %rst page of your radio handset booklet under the heading “Product Safety and RF Exposure for Portable Two-Way Radios” it states “!is radio is intended for use in occupational / controlled conditions where users have full knowledge of their exposure and can exercise control over their exposure to meet the occupational limits in FCC/ICNIRP and International standards. !is radio device is NOT authorised for general

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population consumer use”. Does anyone know what that means? No? I am not surprised!

!e RF referred to means radio frequency. I, for one, am not aware of my exposure or how I can exercise control over a device that is not authorised for general population use, but is okay for the Police as guinea pigs to use. !e booklet goes on to mention compliance with RF Exposure Standards and Operating Instructions and Warnings. It also brie&y mentions use with pacemakers, hearing aids or other medical devices. !e User Guide states “!e signal word ‘WARNING’ with the associated safety icon implies information that, if disregarded, could result in death or serious injury, or serious product damage”. In relation to entering a ‘Radio Frequency’ area it states “WARNING” Ensure you have le$ the RF sensitive area before deactivating Transmit Inhibit”. I am not too sure that very many members know or remember what an RF sensitive area is. It also states “WARNING” Pressing the emergency button, even if Transmit Inhibit is activated, causes the MTP 850 to transmit immediately. !e MTP 850 must NOT be within the RF sensitive area when entering Emergency Mode”.

I would now like you to welcome Dr. Stromberg to address you on the health and safety issues concerning TETRA, but also on the cost and availability of other systems with enhanced functionality. {there then followed a one hour PowerPoint presentation and questions & answers session by Dr. Stromberg to our Annual Delegate Conference on 31st. March 2015}.

!ank you Dr. Stromberg. !e Professor has kindly permitted us to upload his presentation to the members’ area of our website.

I have prepared a lay man’s ten point guide to Hand Held Radio Terminals which is up on your screen and we can upload on our website:- {PowerPoint presentation delivered to Conference}.

1) Do not use hand held terminal in vehicles where possible.

2) Do not use hand held terminal in stations or buildings where possible.

3) General rule – switch o" hand held terminal in vehicles and use vehicle radio.

4) Restrict / reduce use of hand held terminal as a telephone.

5) Restrict / reduce use of earpieces.

6) Earpieces should be checked regularly for leaks and cracks.

7) Do not carry hand held terminal over the heart or waist.

8) Do not handle or chew the ariel of the hand held terminal!

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9) Do not hold the hand the hand held terminal next to the head, neck or ear.

10) Keep transmitting time and by extension receiving time to a minimum.

!e National Executive will consider these important matters further with a view to calling on the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice to disclose what studies were done prior to the introduction of TETRA and to commission such a study now in light of current concerns. Whilst we acknowledge the bene%ts of an encrypted telecommunications system such as TETRA, your health and safety is paramount to the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, thus today’s address to you. I would also like an absolute assurance that TETRA is absolutely 100% encrypted and not ever capable of being eavesdropped.

Once again, please show your appreciation to Professor Stromberg and to John Redmond for arranging his attendance.

!ank you.

Willie Gleeson.

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Distinguished guests, fraternal delegates, fellow delegates and friends, good evening and welcome to the Knightsbrook, hotel, Trim

Minister I stand on this rostrum and welcome you to our Conference on this your %rst AGSI conference as Minister for Justice and Equality.

Since you have taken up the role as Minister we have found you both approachable and refreshing in your interaction with us. You have met us on a number of occasions and we have le$ meetings feeling very positive. However it is not all a bed of roses.Going through the Oireachtas over the last twelve months has been legislative change governing An Garda Siochana. New legislation is being introduced in relation to a Policing Authority, Garda Siochana (Amendment) Bill 2014, Workplace Commission Bill 2014 and we have had the new Public Service Sick Leave Regulations introduced. !ese are just some of the legislative changes which have had and will have huge implication for our organisation.

Minister to your credit you have asked us to a Justice Symposium in June to listen to what the Government was planning going into the future as far as the justice system was concerned. We have spoken at the Committee meetings in relation to the introduction of the Garda Siochana amendment Bill 2014 which makes changes in relation to the Garda Siochana Act 2005 and our interaction with the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission and an increase in its remit. !is Association has made numerous submissions to all of these new legislative changes, but nothing of what we have submitted has been taken on board. AGSI feel we have been ignored. We understand that it is the Governments function to introduce legislation and that many groups and individuals make submissions in writing and orally and that all are listened to, but at the end of the day the changes planned are e"ecting the people involved in this association and we would wish that some safeguards are in place the same as those in place in relation to An Garda Siochana and how it operates.

In January 2014 through the hard work of our General Secretary John Redmond the Association of Garda Sergeant’s and Inspectors won a landmark case when we lodged a complaint through the European Confederation of Police against Ireland’s implementation of the European Social Charter.

We have spent many years trying to develop and progress issues that are of concern to our members through the mechanisms available to us but with little or no success. !e key %ndings of the decision are that under Article 5 of the charter we have the right to organise. !is also allows us to a#liate to bodies like the Irish Congress of Trade Unions if we so wish. Article 6 covers our right to negotiate and determine our pay, not sit outside in another room waiting to hear what crumbs we are to be given.

!e e"ects of that could be seen at the Lansdowne Road talks in January 2013 where

President Tim GalvinAddress to Minister Frances FitzgeraldWednesday 1st April 2015

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the main unions had no problem in us losing our allowances during the course of negotiations so they could maintain their members remuneration. !is article also has implications in relation to strike action but we are aware that Government can restrict this based on arguments advanced by the State involved. !e current Government through you and your Department have informed us at meetings that the European judgement will be rati%ed and applied to the Sta" Associations within An Garda Siochana. You have told us that the Workplace Commission Bill will include us when it comes before the Dail.

An Garda Siochana is not mentioned in the bill except where warrants are being executed and the assistance of members of An Garda Siochana is required. We are aware that Section 8 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990 describes us as o#ce holders not workers and that this description needs to be changed. Minister the European Social Charter decision was made %$een months ago and we are getting close to the end of the current Haddington Road Agreement. Nothing has changed in the legislation allowing us to have access to the various mechanisms involved in Industrial relations which give us access to the Labour Court, labour Relations Commission and other statutory bodies. We are entitled to negotiate on behalf of our members and we would ask that the legislation is updated to allow this to take place giving us a seat and the ability to negotiate our own future. Minister we will not allow ourselves to be peripheral %gures in any future pay negotiation and that the full judgement of Europe is implemented. AGSI decided in January 2013 to walk away from the Lansdowne Road talks because of the injustice being in&icted on our members. We had taken pay cut, a$er pay cut, increases in USC and the imposition of a pension levy and acted in the best interests of the country. By then people had had enough and did not want to be subject to anymore erosion of their pay entitlements.

We were invited into the Labour Relations Commission and in May 2013 the Garda Sect oral Agreement under Haddington Road was %nalised. We are now two years down the road and we sit in limbo. !e Garda Inspectorate were to look at the structure, organisation and sta#ng of An Garda Siochana and the deployment of resources to relevant and appropriate roles. Mr Ray Magee was to look at industrial relations mechanisms and attendant matters and to evaluate annualised hours and /or shi$ arrangements.

Neither strand of the review has yet reported. !e agreement is %nished at the end of 2015. !ere has been speculation in the media that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is looking to begin talks on a successor to Haddington Road in May of this year. We have ful%lled the requirement made of us under the agreement but the opposite can be said for the other side. Two years on and we are no further along the path of negotiation on the review of An Garda Siochana.

Since 2008 AGSI has highlighted the pay cuts our members have taken. We entered the Labour Relations Commission unsure of what to expect. When agreement was reached

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we were able to have some certainty in our pay during the period of the agreement and in the hope that there would be some improvement in the industrial relations end of our role. Going to meeting a$er meeting without end just to say a meeting was held, to tick the box is our mechanism at the moment. We had hoped that the agreement would improve the situation. Nothing seems to have changed.

To quote an idol of mine !ierry Henry and his hand of god “We have started but very brie$y. I do not know when we will resume negotiations. We are at the %rst stage. I am here, I am waiting”

AGSI would expect that any new agreement to continue Haddington Road would begin by beginning the process of re-instating the cuts imposed on our members since 2008. We read in the media almost daily of pay increases been given to people in the private sector. We are now coming from a very low base because of the cuts of approximately twenty %ve percent imposed and we as an Association will be looking to those cuts being reversed.

As you are aware Minister the Public Service (Sick Leave) Regulations 2014 are currently being appealed before the courts in relation to the introduction of the regulations as they pertain to An Garda Siochana. At our meeting with you in January and again last week we discussed the regulations and the impact it was having on our members because of the retrospective look back over four years. Nobody would have an issue with the four year look back provided it began on the day the legislation was introduced into An Garda Siochana. !e four year look back is causing severe %nancial di#culties for people. People who su"ered workplace stress, critical illness or maternity related illness in the period before the legislation was introduced are having their pay cut because there has been a failure by Garda Management to deal with the issue of occupational injury. I know this is an operational matter but I would ask that as a priority you highlight our submission to you in relation to the four year look back to the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform in an e"ort to try and alleviate the hardship of our members and their families. !is review could look at the implementation and the e"ects it is having on genuine people who are sick and amend the regulations for An Garda Siochana which give e"ect to the commencement date of the legislation with a view to having it changed

!e burning issue for members of our Association on the street is the lack of resources to carry out the day to day roles and functions of front line policing. !e resources in the Garda Organisation have been reducing on an on-going basis since 2008. No new recruits came into the force from 2009 until the %rst new students entered the college in September 2014. Currently we have three hundred undergoing training. !e Association welcomes these recruits and looks forward to fresh faces coming onto units across the country in the hope that it will re-invigorate the members on the frontline. However it will not help alleviate the chronic shortage of people available to frontline policing. A

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new roster was introduced into the Garda Organisation and we went from a four unit roster to %ve units cutting the numbers on each unit. On top of that many members retired coming up to February 2012 and since then we have had roughly thirty retiring on a monthly basis. We also have members out of work because of illness or injuries on duty and we lost nearly two hundred people to incentivised career breaks and twenty went to the Department of social protection on secondment. !en we add in the number of female members on maternity leave. !e three hundred new recruits will not go anywhere near replacing those that have le$.

We are still expected to provide the same service we provided over the years with much reduced numbers. Our management have stated many times over the last few years that we have enough resources. I am going to break that myth. On the frontline it is like the loaves and %shes scenario. We provide an emergency service and on many occasions we have listened to people complain on radio and television that people did not get the level of service they expected. People cannot get the service because we do not have the resources necessary to provide the service. We are putting sticky plasters over the cracks in the hope that the system won’t break. !e problem for you Minister is that the system may survive but the men and women providing the service may not. Work overload is becoming more and more acute.

People are doing more with less but the stress being in&icted on people is increasing daily. !e stress includes not just the type of work and the incidents that we are involved in, but more the administration burden being placed on people. !e Garda organisation is being asked to implement 21st century policing plans with 19th century back-up. !e lack of proper information technology to assist us in the performance of our work is hindering our e"ectiveness to carry out our roles and functions.

We have seen in the last twelve months continuing criticism of the organisation because of a lack of standard operating procedures, lack of IT, lack of basic supervision and management. How can anyone supervise or manage when their day every day is carrying administration duties and shu'ing paper from one desk to another or sitting in front of computers reviewing incidents from anything up to %$een years old.

!e way we are expected to operate is a disgrace to any organisation in the 21st century but it is down to a lack of investment in the infrastructure of An Garda Siochana and needs to be remedied as a matter of urgency and allow us to carry out our primary function which is to police this State and provide a %rst class service to its citizens. Minister the IT needs of our organisation are acute and need to be updated urgently to let members carry out their primary role of investigation, prevention and supervision of crime investigation and provide the service that the public expect.

Since you took o#ce on the resignation of Minister Shatter there has been a lot of negativity around An Garda Siochana. !is negativity has come from within the Organisation, from the media, the general public and especially from the &oor of the

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Oireachtas. We are constantly being criticised because of a lack of response to people’s needs or allegations being made against individual members.

On the &oor of the Dail we have had a number of TD’s stand on the &oor and tarnish the good name of our colleagues without any penalty or redress to the people involved. Processes are put in place by your Government in relation to Commissions of Enquiry where our members have to answer allegations made against them but members of the Oireachtas are allowed make comments about individual members of An Garda Siochana and there are no consequences. !is is not just unfair on the individuals involved but is causing untold stress for them and their families. When comments are made about members of the Oireachtas on the &oor, they are asked to withdraw comments straight away but when it involves members of An Garda Siochana there is no request for this to happen. !e members name remains on the record. We all need to be treated in a fair and equitable fashion, not one rule for the privileged few who can use their privileges for political gain.

Minister the emergency services within the country use the tetra radio system as a means of communication. At the beginning of the implementation phase of Tetra within the Garda Organisation the manufacturers included some health implications with the use of handheld devices. Numerous reports were written in late 1990’s and early 2000’s by specialists in the %eld about the health implications of using the Tetra system.!ese reports highlighted that the waves released by Tetra could cause heart, blood and sleep problems. It highlighted tumours, headaches memory loss as well as depression being some of the side e"ects of prolonged exposures to the electromagnetic waves generated by the system. !e system being introduced was a government initiative and the people using it are entitled to know what research was carried out at the time of its introduction and more especially if any research has been done on its e"ects on the people using it every day since.

New research needs to begin as a matter of urgency on the e"ects of exposure. !ere are numerous less harmful technologies available and Minister I must ask that research begin immediately to establish what e"ects they are having for the members who use Tetra every day. Reports of Dr. Trower and Dr. Cherry highlight some of the concerns but were written nearly 15 years ago. We need up to date research to be carried out.

Minister at many of our meetings since you were appointed to your role as Minister you have invited us to make submissions in relation to legislation being introduced that will a"ect how the organisation operates. During the course of our interactions we have highlighted legislative changes that we see as vital for our people on the frontline. Last year the question of prisoners arrested under the Public Order Act being detained in Garda stations was a motion at our conference. !e concerns were that GSOC ended up carrying out investigations in relation to deaths in custody or people dying shortly a$er being released and that a simple legislative change would sort the problem out.

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Your Department has concerns in relation to constitutional rights of people being detained, but we hope that a situation similar to people detained under drink driving legislation will be introduced where they can be kept for up to six hours for their own safety. Members in charge are currently in a damned if you do and damned if you don’t scenario and need legislative improvements to be implemented sooner rather than later. !e Garda Inspectorate report on Crime Investigation carried over two hundred recommendations to be implemented spread over short term, medium term and long term goals. When reading the report I was struck by how many of the recommendations had already appeared at and been discussed at our conferences.

!e biggest operational item of the report where our members are concerned is the Domestic Violence recommendation. We have made a submission to you Minister that your Department look at introducing legislation to cover Domestic Violence dealing with these issues a power to arrest and remove the culprit from the scene or else as your sta" indicated changes in the Non-fatal O"ences Against the Person Act and give Gardai a power to arrest for an O"ence contrary to Section 2 of the Act for simple assault. !is will have a twofold e"ect in that it will allow us deal with domestic incidents and with assaults that occur on our streets most nights of the week.

During our Conference last year I highlighted the poor condition of Garda Stations across the country. I am glad that you have announced the beginning of work in Kevin Street, Galway and Wexford but Minister some of the workplaces people are expected to work in are a disgrace and no one would consider them adequate in this day and age. Gardai having to li$ wheelchairs into Garda Stations because there are no access facilities available is not good enough for a modern police service and I would ask that a serious look be taken into the suitability of current Garda buildings and their ability to serve the members working in them and the people we provide the service to.With the improvements in the %nancial situation I would hope that cognisance is given to a major refurbishment of outdated and inadequate buildings being used as Garda Stations across the country.

Minister I will %nish by re-iterating the fact that our interaction with you has been a positive one in the months since you took up the role. I hope that this will continue and that our input into the changes being envisaged for An Garda Siochana will be meaningful and that the concerns we are highlighting will be listened to.

!ank You

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The Conference in Picturesby Alan Dowley & Joanne Sweeney-Burke

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AGSI cool towards O’Sullivan Cormac O'Keeffe Trim, Co Meath Relations between middleranking

gardai and Noirin O’Sullivan have chilled as she prepares to give her first speech as Garda Commissioner

to an association annual conference later today.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) described as “totally and utterly unacceptable” the commissioner’s lack of engagement with them over serious issues, including sick leave.

AGSI vice-president Antoinette Cunningham recalled

comments she herself made at last year’s conference welcoming

Ms O’Sullivan’s appointment.

She said delegates were happy with her appointment because of her experience, “operationally and managerially”.

Ms Cunningham told the association’s annual conference

in Trim, Co Meath, that the commissioner’s lack of engagement with them was “totally and utterly unacceptable,

disappointing and more than a bit inconsiderate”.

She said the association, which represents almost

2,400 sergeants and inspectors, had sought four times

in the last seven weeks to have meetings with her, but to no avail.

Ms Cunningham said a small group of association officials

had met the commissioner on February 9, when

she had used the phrase “constructive engagement”.

However, she said that, since then, she had left frontline

members with no definition of occupational injury,

no guidelines as to what

constituted a critical illness and no policy on previous injuries on duty, which still affected members.

It is estimated that around 200 AGSI members are affected

by sick pay issues and the AGSI argues that there has been no clarity from management about matters arising out of sick pay legislation

in the public service. Ms Cunningham told the

commissioner that constructive engagement was not

one-sided. She urged Ms

O’Sullivan to tackle those issues with urgency and to respect

and acknowledge the role that the association could play in consultative processes.

She said the lack of clarity had caused financial hardship

to some members, who first heard they were off the garda payroll when they received

a call from a financial institution to say that a payment

had not been made due to lack of funds.

Editorial: 14

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AGSI president Tim Galvin at the association's annual conference in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, Co Meath. Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan will address delegates there today. Picture: Barry Cronin

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Tipperary Star*Thursday, 9 April 2015Page: 1


Garda Training College to receive a further 250 recruits

Another big boost for Templemore 250 more recruits to be taken in to Garda College

BY RONANDODD [email protected] @tippstar

The announcement that a further 250 Garda recruits are to

be taken on in Templemore is a further boost to the town’s local economy. The announcement was made by Minister for Justice, Frances

Fitzgerald, at the Association of Garda Sergeants and

Inspectors annual conference at Easter.

This brings the numbers of Gardai training at the Garda College to 550 since last September

following the ending of the recruitment moratorium

in 2013. The news has been welcomed

by local TD Deputy Noel Coonan, who said that

two batches of 125 new students will start their training

in the coming months. He said this was more good

news for Templemore Town, the local economy, and for County Tipperary, and, indeed,

the greater economy. “This will bring to 550 the

total number of new gardai that will have been recruited by this Government between September 2014 and 2015. On any given week there are an additional 100-plus Gardai in the college alongside the 300 new students that have been recently recruited. These extra Gardai are attending in-service, promotion or retirement

courses or other specialist courses. This brings even more life to the college and Templemore town,” said the FG deputy.

“There is no doubt Fine

Gael is committed to strengthening the Gardai,” he said,

adding that Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald had reiterated

this dedication on numerous occasions in Templemore.

The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, was, he said, the first Taoiseach

to ever visit the Garda College when he visited the establishment in February in the company of Deputy Coonan

to welcome the latest batch of 100 Garda students.'

Meanwhile, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly said the extra gardai were in addition to the €27.510 invested

in new vehicles between 2012 and 2014, marking a massive increase on the €4.801 provided for in Budgets 20092011.

This announcement also comes as extremely positive news for Templemore.

��


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Irish Examiner*Wednesday, 1 April 2015Page: 2


‘Arm more officers to tackle organised crime’ Cormac O'Keeffe

Frontline supervisors have called for more gardai to be armed to tackle organised crime.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) also said many gardai were not trained to deal with armed criminals, some of whom brandish assault rifles and sub-machine guns.

The AGSI unanimously

the capacity and capability to deal with this threat in any part of the country, day or night,” said Mr Hogan.

“Unfortunately, however, this is not the case.

“Every regular unit in districts around the country should have the capability and capacity to immediately arm trained and authorised garda should the need arise.

“Give more gardai on regular units the training,

firearms were regularly tasked with close protection of VIPs, witnesses, and persons

under threat. “There is a specific course

that trains people to undertake close protection, which

the vast majority are not trained,” said Mr Colohan.

He said that, following a rise in gangland activity, the standard response was to increase armed patrols.

“These patrols are carried backfed motions on the subject

of Garda armed units from Roscommon/Louth and Cork City branches at their annual conference yesterday

in Trim, Co Meath. Roscommon/Longford

delegate Michael Hogan said criminals did not appear to have any difficulty obtaining firearms, often brought into the country as “sweeteners” in drug shipments.

“We as a force should have

equipment, and authorisation to carry firearms, if

required, on duty. “After all, they are generally

first on the scene of any armed incident.”

The conference also backed a motion from Cork City

delegate Danny Colohan that all gardai authorised to carry firearms receive mandatory tactical firearms training.

He said members carrying

out in an effort to curb such activity. These are carried out in the absence of any tactical

training or the absence of access to a greater level of firepower or less lethal weapons.

“In recent months, detectives in Cork have responded

to an active shooter and to a separate incident which required them to enter a building which contained a suspected gunman.”

��

Irish Examiner*Monday, 30 March 2015Page: 2


Call for increase in garda numbers Cormac O'Keeffe

Middle-ranking gardai are calling for the strength of the force to be increased to “minimal numbers of 14,000”, more than 1,000 in excess of those available.

Representatives are also seeking backing from colleagues to requests that uniformed gardai be allowed to carry firearms.

The calls are being made at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, which represents around 2,000 supervisory officers.

The conference, starting today, will hear sergeants spend “little or no time” supervising rank-and-file gardai on patrols because of a mounting bureaucratic burden — contrary to the recommendations of a Garda Inspectorate report.

Falling Garda numbers are expected to dominate debate, with delegates from Kilkenny/Carlow and Kerry calling for urgent efforts to stem the fall in the strength of the force. Their motion calls on the AGSI national executive “to actively seek that the force number be brought up, to stop Garda numbers falling below 13.000, and strive to achieve minimal numbers of 14,000”.

The AGSI has repeatedly raised serious concerns about the strength of the force, although it has welcomed

the restart of recruitment. There are currently

299 recruits at different stages, with the first 100 due into their stations in May and the remaining in August and September.

Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan last week told the Oireachtas Justice Committee that 325 recruits were needed every year just to maintain the force at 13.000. The last official figures

put the strength of the force at 12,799.

Fianna Fail justice spokes¬

man Niall Collins said 325 was on the “conservative side”. He said the force faced an “exodus”, with an estimated

1,498 members eligible to retire.

He said official figures showed 230 gardai were on career breaks, although their numbers are included in the 12,799 figure. On top of that, up to 500 members are on sick leave.

AGSI bosses are likely to raise the issue given the attendance

of Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, who will addresses delegates tonight.

Delegates from Wexford and Dublin Metropolitan Region

East have put down a motion calling on the Garda commissioner to set aside a budget to allow for the allocation

of extra manpower to cover the temporary loss of personnel through parental leave, career breaks or maternity

leave. They suggest creating a

panel of retired members who could be called in.

Another motion calls for the amalgamation of the Garda Ombudsman, the Garda Inspectorate, and the Policing Authority and for the savings to be used to increase

the intake of recruits. In another motion, delegates

from Roscommon/ Longford are calling on the national executive to negotiate

with Garda management to ensure that “sufficient members on regular units are trained and authorities to carry firearms in all parts of the State”.

Meanwhile, delegates from Cork City want management

to ensure that those who are entitled to carry firearms — such as detectives

and specialist units — undergo “mandatory tactical firearms training”.

Representatives from Galway want the commissioner

to address the “increased level of administrative duties being delegated downwards to sergeant rank”.

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Roscommon Herald*Tuesday, 14 April 2015Page: 21


Calls for more Gardai to carry firearms to tackle armed criminals A MEMBER of the Roscommon/Longford Garda division has called for Gardai throughout

the country to be permitted to carry firearms on duty if required.

Speaking at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors Conference held recently, Roscommon/Longford delegate Michael Hogan said criminals did not appear to have any difficulty obtaining firearms, often brought into the country as “sweeteners” in drug shipments.

“We as a force should have the capacity and capability to deal with this threat in any part of the country, day or night,” said Mr Hogan.

“Unfortunately, however, this is not the case. Every regular unit in districts around the country

should have the capability and capacity to

immediately arm trained and authorised Gardai should the need arise.

“Give more Gardai on regular units the training, equipment, and authorisation to carry firearms, if required, on duty. After all, they are generally first on the scene of any armed incident,”

he said. The Association of Garda Sergeants and

Inspectors (AGSI) said many Gardai were not trained to deal with armed criminals, some of whom brandish assault rifles and sub-machine guns.

The AGSI unanimously backed motions on the subject of Garda armed units from Roscommon/Longford and Cork City branches

at their recent annual conference in Trim, County Meath.

��



Change in law ‘forces sick gardai to work’ Cormac O'Keeffe Changes to garda sick leave has resulted in a 30% drop in sick days — but staff associations

have said this is because members are coming

into work sick or injured. The issue is causing considerable

anger among frontline gardai and middle-ranking

officers and led to strong criticisms at a staff association

conference this week. Garda sick leave entitlement

was halved last year from six months’ full pay, followed by six months’ half pay, to three months for each period — which is the general

public sector standard. The changes, introduced on May 1, followed an unsuccessful

legal action by garda staff associations.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said statistics showed 121,579 sick days were taken between April and December 2014. This was a 30% drop on the same period

the previous year, when the figure stood at 173,884.

This figure breaks down to 84,115 days due to ordinary illness, compared to 142,257 the previous year (a fall of 34%) and 27,464 days due to injury on duty, compared to 31,627 (a drop of 13%).

Ms Fitzgerald said the fall in sick days was “a welcome development”.

However, a Garda Representative Association (GRA)

spokesman said: “These figures can’t be taken at face

value — there’s another story underneath. It is causing

undue suffering to members who are already doing a difficult and stressful job.”

If a garda takes sick leave after the introduction of the scheme last May, those days are added to sick days taken in the previous four years.

“In reality, because of the retrospective nature of the change, members are having to go to work when they are not well,” said the spokesman.

“It is not good for their wellbeing or for policing.”

He said members have gone to work in surgical collars

and wearing slings. “The garda job is different,”

said the spokesman. “It has been well proven that rotating shift patterns are particularly stressful on the body and hammers the immune

system.” Tim Galvin, president of

the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), said the retrospective

nature of the changes was causing most problems.

“The 30% reduction in sick days does not reveal the real impact,” he said. “A lot of people are coming into work sick because they can’t afford to go out sick and lose pay.

“It is because of what happened in the last four years.

They should not take that into account.”

He recalled a garda involved in a serious investigation, in which his family

had been threatened. He went off sick but, because of previous sick leave, was on half pay.

The issue was raised repeatedly by AGSI officers at

their annual conference this week. AGSI vice-president Antoinette Cunningham said they had sought four

times in the last seven weeks to meet Garda Commissioner

Noirin O’Sullivan on sick pay but to no avail.

She said frontline members had been left with no definition of occupational injury, no guidelines as to what constituted a critical illness, and no policy on previous injuries on duty.

��

Irish Times*Thursday, 2 April 2015Page: 7


Extra gardai not enough, says AGSI AGSI warns that recruitment move will do little to ease shortage of gardai on streets

Garda numbers down from high of 14,500 to 12,800, with 300 recruits now in training CONORLALLY Crime Correspondent

Garda sergeants and inspectors have welcomed plans for

an additional 250 recruits to be taken into the Garda College but have warned the move would do little to ease the shortage

of gardai on the streets. The Association of Garda Sergeants

and Inspectors (AGSI) said not only were retirements from the force running at more than 300 a year, but some members

had availed of incentivised career breaks.

Others had gone on secondment to Government departments to fight social welfare

fraud and some members were on maternity leave.

“The new recruits will not go anywhere near replacing those that have left,” said AGSI president

Tim Galvin at the close of the association’s annual delegate

conference in Trim, Co Meath.

He described as “a myth” public assertions by senior Garda

management that the force had sufficient manpower.

“People cannot get the Garda’s [emergency] service because

we do not have the resources necessary to provide

the service. We are putting sticking plasters over the cracks in the hope that the system

won’t break.” Overburdened Mr Galvin added that serving gardai were overburdened and stressed as a result. AGSI members

were being swamped with administration, undermining their ability to supervise the Garda teams under them.

While there was also a lack of information technology on which modern policing worked in other jurisdictions, the need for more personnel was most pressing.

Numbers in the Garda have fallen from a record high of 14,500 since recruitment end¬

ed in 2008 to 12,800 at present. Most in the force believe the fig- %l JSS B ure should not have been al- **~*^-*

lowed to fall below 13,000. Since last autumn, three Garda Commissioner Noirin classes of 100 recruits have

O’Sullivan said this week that been taken int0 Templemore 325 new members needed to be recruited each year to even maintain numbers at 12,800.

The recruitment process began again last autumn and

since then three classes of 100 recruits have been taken into the Garda College in Templemore,

Co Tipperary. The new round of intakes, announced

yesterday by Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, will bring to 550 the number of recruits in training.

Those who entered the college in the first intake last au- u Minister for Justice Frances

tumn are nearing the end of the Fitzgerald said continuous first phase of their training and Garda recruitment would help in the weeks ahead will be de- ease administrative pressure ployed to stations nationwide. on serving gardaf.

“[They] will be coming out lat- photograph: alan betson

er this year to work in our communities, to keep our communities

safe and to do the important policing work and criminal

investigation that needs to be done,” Ms Fitzgerald said. Access to firearms While some AGSI members suggested during conference debates that heretofore unarmed

uniformed gardaf should have access to firearms if and when the need arose, Ms Fitzgerald did not agree.

She was in favour of maintaining armed detectives and

having armed regional support units, but suggested that was an adequate armed response for the threat facing the Garda.

Ms Fitzgerald said she had listened to AGSI’s concerns

around its members being swamped by administration to the point of being pulled away from supervising front-line gardaf on the streets.

She believed continuous Garda recruitment would help ease

some of that pressure.

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The Star*Tuesday, 31 March 2015Page: 12


Garda body calls for merger

SENIOR gardai called for three watchdogs — the Garda Ombudsman, the Garda Inspectorate

and the new Garda Authority — to be merged into one body.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) also criticised Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan for failing to meet them to discuss issues around rosters and sickness conditions.

The annual AGSI conference, which began in Co Meath yesterday,

also called ^ for pay cuts totalling

14 per cent imposed on its members

over the past seven years to be reversed.

Recruit AGSI general secretary

John Redmond said merging the three garda watchdogs

into a single body would save money, which should be used to recruit more gardai.

The representative body is also seeking increased training for officers who

carry firearms and a special driver’s permit

so that penalty points incurred in the line of duty will not appear on a garda’s

personal licence. The AGSI also said

it is very proud of the work carried out by the investigation team at Blackrock Garda Station, which led to the conviction

of Graham Dwyer for the murder

of Elaine O’Hara.

ISSUES: Ms O’Sullivan

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Irish Times*Tuesday, 31 March 2015Page: 10


Garda body welcomes verdict in Bailey case Garda reputation helped by outcome of high-profile cases, says AGSI chief

Commissioner criticised for not meeting association to discuss sick-pay issues CONORLALLY Crime Correspondent

Garda sergeants and inspectors have welcomed the verdict in the Ian Bailey case, saying they remained hopeful

that the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier could still be

solved. The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors

(AGSI) has also praised the Garda members who brought Graham Dwyer to justice for the murder of Elaine O’Hara.

AGSI general secretary John Redmond said gardai worked as hard on other investigations,

though those efforts were rarely seen by the public. “We don’t go trumpeting it from the rooftops - this just happened to be higher-profile and that’s why it came to the fore,” he said at the opening of the association’s annual conference

in Trim, Co Meath. “We do this type of investigation

day in, day out, and it often goes unnoticed.”

Commenting on the verdict in the Ian Bailey case, in which a High Court jury did not find in favour of Mr Bailey’s allegations

that the Garda Siochana had conspired to implicate him in Ms Toscan du Planner’s

murder, Mr Redmond said there were “no winners”.

Garda reputation “The fact the jury found there was no conspiracy; that’s important

for the reputation of the Garda organisation,” he

said. “An unfortunate incident occurred almost 20 years

ago. We still can’t forget a woman was murdered at the time, and that case is still unsolved.

That has to continue to be our priority as police.”

Mr Redmond said that now allegations by Mr Bailey against some Garda members had been rejected at the end of a very lengthy trial, those against whom they were levelled

could “breathe easier”. He added that even though

a Garda member may know an allegation against them is unfounded,

the investigation of such accusations was very stressful for those gardai and their families.

Focused However, the force would remain

focused on the fact a woman had been murdered and that the killing was unsolved,

just as they had remained focused until Dwyer

was convicted. “[Gardai] work very, very hard to bring perpetrators

to justice and to gather evidence where they can, and that will continue in this case as well, and they will still aim to solve that case . . . There needs to be closure for the family,”

he said. AGSI vice-president Antoinette

Cunningham criticised Garda Commissioner Noiri'n O’Sullivan for her failure to

meet AGSI to clarify issues relating to sick pay. While Ms

O’Sullivan had met the association as recently as last month,

Ms Cunningham said AGSI had been told by Minister forJustice

Frances Fitzgerald that no further progress could be made on the issues of concern

until an outstanding legal case was dealt with in June. AGSI has said it no longer has involvement in the litigation and is urging Ms O’Sullivan to meet the association to address

questions about how gardai injured at work qualify for sick pay.

Ms Cunningham has said there was no clear definition for frontline members of “occupational

injury, no guidelines on what constitutes a critical

illness [and] no policy in relation to previous injury on

duty which members are still affected by”.

II John Redmond; Garda focused on solving Sophie Toscan du Plantier case

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Garda Commissioner faces criticism on pace of reform

Disappointment with O’Sullivan's failure to meet promises expressed at conference AGSI president voices frustration over lack of feedback from Garda management CONOR LALLY Crime Correspondent The slow pace of Garda reform under Garda Commissioner Noirfn O’Sullivan has been strongly criticised by a group of sergeants and inspectors.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI)

said that, despite promises to the contrary, changes to policing

remain chaotic and are marked by a lack of consultation

with, and clear direction to, Garda members.

The association urged Ms O’Sullivan, who was officially appointed last December, to study the management style of Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and to learn from it.

AGSI said it had been hopeful a new era was beginning

when Ms O’Sullivan was appointed commissioner, but it

had been left disappointed. In an address on the second

day of the association’s annual conference in Trim, Co Meath, AGSI presidentTim Galvin said he was frustrated at the unwillingness

of Garda management tolistentothe association’s concerns

on a variety of issues. These included the changes

to the Garda Act giving more powers to the Garda Ombudsman,

as well as the much-criticised new roster systems in the

force.

Shift patterns The rosters involve long shift patterns followed by four days off, a system which gardai claim is disrupting crime investigation

and has already been criticised as unworkable by the Garda

Inspectorate The association was also concerned

at the lack of clarity around how gardai injured in work qualify for sick pay, saying

Garda members were suffering financial hardship as a result.

The group said there is confusion over procedures around appointing

sergeants to supervise rank-and-file gardai carrying out investigations, with neither rank being informed about seniority

in some cases. The association said that its

members are being swamped by administrative duties, meaning

they have less time to offer hands-on supervision of rank-and-file gardai.

AG g I also said that there are real concerns that the Tetra radio

system used by Garda radios could be adversely impacting

its members’ health. The group said that Ms O’Sullivan

has not been available to meet with its members to hear their input.

“Our requests for meetings with the Minister have been willingly

accommodated. “I am sorry to say that within

the Garda organisation nothing has really changed. [Ms O’Sullivan

was] appointed to the position of commissioner but we

have to say your treatment of this association has in our opinion

[been] a disappointment. “Assurances of engagement

and meaningful input appear to be idle words and promises.

“We must insist, commissioner, that your attitude to this association

changes. Don’t treat us like a nuisance because if that is your approach, that will be our attitude.

“Can I suggest you take a leaf out of the Minister’s book? Arrange

routine meetings on a quarterly basis.”

Heavily criticised

AGSI general secretary John Redmond said the organisation had been heavily criticised by the media following successive scandals.

While Ms O’Sullivan indicated change was needed, “the

pace of change is very slow, and too slow for the public and for us”.

Mr Redmond said that when Ms O’Sullivan addressed the conference last year he felt a new era was starting.

“Unfortunately, that has proven not to be the case.”

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Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors annual conference in Trim, Co Meath. PHOTOGRAPH: BARRY CRONIN

��

The Herald - National Edition*Tuesday, 31 March 2015Page: 6


Gardai accuse boss of failing to engage with their concerns

TALKS: Garda Sgt Claire Mulligan speaking to Sgt Micheal Miney at the AGSI conference in Trim, Co Meath

and Inspectors (AGSI) was “totally and utterly unacceptable,

disappointing, and more than a bit inconsiderate,” claimed the association’s vice president Antoinette Cunningham.

MEETING Ms Cunningham told the AGSI annual conference in Trim, Co Meath, that the association, which represents almost 2,400 sergeants and inspectors, had failed on four occasions to organise a meeting with the commissioner.

The representatives are anx¬

ious to discuss concerns such as sick pay, which affected not only members but also their families.

Ms Cunningham said a small group of association officials had met with the commissioner on February 9 when she had used the phrase “constructive engagement”.

But since then, it was disappointing she had left frontline

members with no definition of occupational injury, no guidelines

as to what constituted a critical illness, and no policy on previous injuries on duty which still affect members.

Around 200 AGSI members are currently affected by sick pay issues, and the association argues that there has been no clarity issued by garda management

about matters that had arisen from the introduction of sick pay legislation in the public service.

She urged Ms O’Sullivan to tackle those issues with extreme

urgency, and to respect and acknowledge the role that the association could play in consultative processes.

[email protected]

By Tom Brady GARDA Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan has been criticised by representatives of mid-ranking gardai for failing to engage with their concerns about sick pay and other matters.

The commissioner’s failure to meet their representative association on a number of occasions

and her lack of engagement with the concerns of the

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Gardai being harassed on social media

AGSI president Tim Galvin addresses the media at the conference in Co Meath.

Cormac O'Keeffe

Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan has said that investigations are under way into the harassment of gardai

on social media after middle-ranking officers said that colleagues were being targeted by some anti-water charge protestors.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said photographs of gardai were being put up on social media sites looking for their names and addresses and where their children went to school.

“We have an operation in place in relation to a number of recent incidents where members of the public, including members of An Garda Siochana, were harassed

both on social media and in person,” said Ms O’Sullivan.

Speaking at the AGSI annual conference in Trim, Co Meath, the commissioner said the investigations were continuing.

The association’s president Tim Galvin thanked the

commissioner for taking on board the issue after he wrote to her about it.

“Photographs have been taken of gardai and put up on social media, looking for the

name, and the address of the gardai and where the families are going to school — that sort of intimidation,” Mr Galvin said.

He had earlier accused the commissioner of treating the association, which represents

2,400 sergeants and inspectors, with “disdain” and

as a “nuisance”. Ms O’Sullivan rejected the

claim: “Well, absolutely not. I don’t see any of our members as a nuisance and I think I’m on record from the very first day saying that we

will engage with all of our people in a very constructive way.”

On the matter on falling garda numbers, she said: “It’s something we’re cognisant

of. In order for us to remain at standstill we need 325 recruits a year. I’m very confident recruitment will continue and we will see numbers increase.”

In relation to calls at the conference for more armed gardai in Dublin and Cork, she said: “ It’s something we are very conscious of in

terms of looking at our armed response capability and not just in those urban centres but right across the organisation.”

On firearms training, she said: “Tactical training was being looked at specifically

in the context of the Garda’s armed response capability.

“We are looking at appropriate training to ensure

people are perfectly competent and capable of carrying

firearms in a variety of circumstances.”

She confirmed the investigation into Sophie Toscan Du

Plan tier’s murder was still live.

“It absolutely is. And, again, I am very much conscious

in that particular case the du Plantier family are a bereaved family.

“And certainly it is a matter of regret to An Garda Siochana that over the last number of years nobody has been brought to justice for that crime. But it remains an ongoing, live and open investigation.”

Ms O’Sullivan said the Dwyer case highlighted the “professionalism, dedication and commitment” of An Garda Siochana, particularly

the investigation team in Blackrock.

��



Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors general secretary John Redmond and Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan at the AGSI annual delegate conference in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim, Co Meath. Pictures: Barry Cronin

��



Gardai ‘can’t cope’ with acute shortages Garda urges Commissioner to speak out and to respect AGSI Cormac O'Keeffe in Trim

Middle-ranking gardai have urged Garda chief Noirin O’Sullivan to speak out about the staff shortage in the force before a garda is “seriously injured or worse”.

And in a stinging attack on the commissioner, the head of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said “nothing has changed” in the force despite all her talk of change, consultation, and engagement.

AGSI president Tim Galvin told Ms O’Sullivan that

she should “take a leaf out of the [Justice] Minister’s book” in her approach to the association.

He accused the Garda boss of treating the association with “disdain” at what he called repeated failures to meet them on serious issues.

Mr Galvin made his comments to the commissioner

before her address to delegates at the annual conference

of AGSI in Trim, Co Meath.

He said the strength of the force had fallen by 1,700 to 12,800 in five years. He told the commissioner that approximately 30 people were leaving every month across all ranks.

“We just can’t cope,” he said. “If you take water protests

for one example, it is stripping us of what resources

we have in the city and we are still expected to

provide a service for everybody else and we just don’t

have the resources.” “There are ever increasing

demands on our organisation and as a consequence,

resources are stretched to breaking point at times. Heretofore there was scope to back fill with overtime but that is no longer available.”

He said district and divisional headquarters across

the country were finding it more difficult to provide “even the most basic” of policing

services on a daily basis: “Not only is this unfair to supervisors and operational

gardai alike, because it exposes them to greater risks, it is also unfair on the public who expect the same level of service as they did when the organisation strength was at 14,500. We are currently 12,800.”

He attacked the commissioner for not speaking out

the staffing crisis: “Commissioner, it will be too late

to say we were under-resourced when the confidence

of the public in the gardai is lost. It will be too late to blame under-resourcing when one of your staff is seriously

injured or worse. “Privately, your senior

managers will acknowledge to this association that they recognise we have a staff shortage, however, no one wants to state it publicly.

“Why, therefore, are you reluctant to say what everyone

is thinking privately?

Now is your opportunity. There is a long lead time to getting people through training.

Calling for extra resources when the quality of

service has fallen to unacceptable levels is too late.”

He called on management to match new gardai with the attrition rate: “We are losing more than we are taking in; now is the time to commence work on that strategy.”

Mr Galvin strongly criticised the commissioner for

not engaging with the association on a range of issues

contrary to her promises at last year’s conference.

He urged her not to treat the association as a nuisance,

warning: “if that is your approach that will be our attitude”.

��

Meath Chronicle*Saturday, 4 April 2015Page: 22


Gardai gather in Trim for annual conference STEPHEN TORMEY

TRIM has become a focal point for major public service conferences,

as the Meath town hosts two significant gatherings

for gardai and nurses this year.

The 2015 Annual Delegate Conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors

(AGSI) is underway this week at Knightsbrook Hotel with the AGSI’s right to direct pay negotiations taking centre stage.

The AGSI will also present its own model of pay negotiations

ahead of the forthcoming review and conclusion of the Haddington Road Agreement.

According to general secretary John Redmond, pay will

be a dominant theme throughout the conference as a result

of government and ESRI announcements around the continual

improvements in the economy.

The AGSI is also hosting a panel discussion including a number of heavy-hitting stakeholders and experts, including

Kieran Mulvey, CEO of the Labour Relations Commission;

Bill Roche, professor of industrial relations and human resources, UCD; John Barrett,

Local garda sergeants at the AGSI conference in Trim (from left); Burlingham. photo: seamus farrelly.

executive director of HR and personnel development with An Garda Sxochana, and Terry Spence, retired chairman of the Police Federation of Northern

Ireland. Last year, the conference

received widespread media coverage when the former Minister for Justice declined to attend. The sitting Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald, will address the conference this year, however,

while Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan will also address

delegates. In May, Knightsbrook Hotel

will also host the 2015 Annual Delegate Conference

of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

While event details haven’t yet been revealed, it has been confirmed that Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, will address

delegates on Friday 8th May.

Trim gardai on duty at the AGSI conference: Ivan Purcell, Michael McGowan and Johnny Plunkett.

��

Irish Independent Tabloid*Wednesday, 1 April 2015Page: 24


Gardai haven’t had tactical firearms training in 15 years TonyBrady

LOCAL detectives are being sent onto the streets to cope with armed incidents without any tactical training, according to gardai.

The last course in the tactical use of firearms was held in the Garda College 15 years ago, a conference was told.

And front-line garda supervisors fear the lack of training

is putting detectives’ lives in danger.

The annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in Trim yesterday

unanimously backed motions to increase the number of

gardai who are properly trained and qualified to carry firearms.

Delegate Michael Hogan said he did not want to see the Garda becoming an armed force but they had to be realistic.

In any part of the country, day or night, a garda could be faced with an armed incident, involving criminals, who had scant regard for the law.

“Criminals do not appear to have any difficulty obtaining illegal

firearms. They are brought into the country illegally and often

included in drug shipments as sweeteners to the deal.

“With a stolen high-powered car, they have no problem travelling

to any part of the country to commit crime and we, as a

A motion to increase the number of armed gardai was backed at the conference.

force, should have the capacity and capability to deal with this threat.

“Unfortunately, this is not the case,” he added.

Mr Hogan said members of the regional support units (RSUs), set up in 2008, were highly trained and did a superb

job. He said he was based in

Granard, Co Longford, and the units for his region were located in Claremorris in Mayo and Salthill in Galway, both a long way from Granard.

The nearest RSU unit was based in Mullingar but it covered

the eastern region and could be in Kilkenny on duty.

He said the RSUs stopped

work at 4am and if there was an armed incident after that, there were insufficient armed detectives in many areas to provide cover.

Mr Hogan said every regular garda unit in districts around the country should be able to immediately call on armed trained and authorised gardai, should the need arise.

This would require finance but money should not be an issue. A core function of the Garda was the protection of life and this must include garda lives as well.

Cork city delegate Danny Coholan, who is a member of an RSU in the southern region, said local detectives carrying firearms were regularly tasked with providing close protection for VIPs, witnesses and persons under threat but did not have the training for that work.

“Following an increase in gangland and feuding activity, the standard response is to increase armed patrols. Those patrols are carried out in the absence of tactical training or access to greater levels of firepower

or less lethal weapons”. Mr Coholan said there was

an on-going operation at night in Dublin and Cork city where armed cover up to 7am was usually

provided by two detectives, in the absence of RSU or emergency

response unit personnel.

��



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The Herald - National Edition*Wednesday, 1 April 2015Page: 2


Gardai in Dwyer case praised by boss O’Sullivan

SPEECH: Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors conference

By Tom Brady GARDA Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan has praised the gardai

involved in the Graham Dwyer murder case and said that

more analysts will be recruited in the future.

Speaking at the annual conference for garda sergeants

and inspectors in Trim, Ms O’Sullivan said it was a very challenging and interesting week for gardai with the conclusions

of the Graham Dwyer and Ian Bailey cases and the publication of the report into the death of Father Niall Molloy.

In each case, she said, everyone had to remember the impact on the families of those

involved.

DEDICATION She said the Dwyer case had shown the commitment, dedication

and professionalism of the investigating gardai.

Ms O’Sullivan said there should be greater use of data analytics and the force is going to the marketplace to recruit more analysts.

The garda investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier remained live and it was a source of regret to the gardai that nobody had yet been brought to justice.

Ms O’Sullivan said the force needed 325 recruits a year to

offset the losses through retirements, deaths and resignations.

She was confident there would be an ongoing trickle of recruitment and she believed this would continue and numbers

wouM increase. Separately, Ms O’Sullivan

pledged that she does not re¬

gard her frontline supervisors as a nuisance and is anxious to engage constructively with them.

Ms O’Sullivan was responding to hard-hitting comments

from the president of the Association of Garda Sergeants and

Inspectors (AGSI), Tim Galvin.

Mr Galvin said that at last year’s conference the commissioner

had assured them that big changes were on the way.

But since then, nothing within the garda organisation had

really changed and her treatment of the association had

been a disappointment.

NUISANCE : Mr Galvin told the commissioner:

“Don’t treat us as a nuisance because, if that is your approach, that will be our attitude.”

But Ms O’Sullivan said she was very committed to ongoing communications with sergeants and inspectors.

She said the massive programme of work currently

under way included a lot of input from members of the association.

She also confirmed that gardai had launched an investigation

into harassment of members of the force on social media and in person.

The attacks are understood to be focused on gardai involved in policing water protests.

Reacting to conference motions seeking proper training

for detectives, she said this was under review as part of an overall

look at the use of firearms and an updating of policies.

[email protected]

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The Herald - National Edition*Monday, 30 March 2015Page: 10


Gardai want permits for fast driving By Tom Brady GARDAI are looking for special driving permits to protect them from penalty points on their private licences while driving on duty.

Supervisors are fearful that their private licences wiil be affected if they collect penalty points for road traffic offences, allegedly committed when they are driving patrol cars.

Current internal regulations are meant to ensure that gardai are exempt from sanctions such as points for speeding, in special circumstances, if they are on duty.

But following last year’s controversy over penalty points,

some gardai say it is no longer clear if that exemption will still be enforced.

The annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants

and Inspectors, which gets underway today in Trim, Co Meath, will hear that members

are becoming increasingly concerned that their personal licences will be affected.

The association’s Westmeath branch is calling for Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan

to introduce a special driving permit to safeguard

COMISSIONER: Noirin O’Sullivan

them while on duty. The Garda College has also put down

a motion calling for changes to a directive issued by Garda headquarters last year, which meant that driving training vehicles and motorcycles would no longer be exempt from any penalty point cancellation process

while in official use. The major issue dominating

the agenda today is pay and delegates will debate a proposal that their pay rates should be increased to 2008 levels.

Some branches want an urban allowance for members,

who work in areas with population in excess of40,000 people.

The association will also send

out a warning to the Government that the current intake

of recruits must be increased immediately to prevent the continuing drop in the strength of the force.

At the moment, there are 300 new recruits in Templemoree Garda College, but delegates believe the number will have to be increased significantly.

MEMBERS Two branches, Kilkenny-Carlow

and Kerry want the size of the force restored to 14,000, while there are also calls for transparency in the allocation of resources as well as an explanation

from the commissioner of the rationale behind their deployment.

The conference will also examine the fallout from the

decision by the European Social Committee, which will allow the association to directly negotiate on the pay of its members for the first time.

Up to now, the gardai did not have a seat at the negotiation table.

But AGSI general secretary John Redmond said last night: “We will not be peripheral figures

any more.”

[email protected]

��

Irish News*Friday, 3 April 2015Page: 15


Hopes image of injuries suffered by garda will highlight dangers on beat

Valerie Robinson

GARDA representatives have released a photograph of an officer who suffered horrific

eye injuries on duty to highlight the dangers facing gardal on the beat. Traffic Corps garda Sergeant Dave Haughney has been on sick leave since losing 75 per cent vision in his left eye after being struck in the face with a stone in December. Sgt Haughney, who is based at Midleton Garda Station in east Cork, was working with a colleague when the pair was set upon by a gang of six men after they stopped a car one night.

Garda left with just 25% vision in eye after attack by gang The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) released a photograph showing the sergeant’s facial injuries in a bid to inform the public of the risks posed to gardal on a daily basis. AGSI vice-president Willie Gleeson said that Sgt Haughney’s

injuries would have a “huge effect” on his work on the force as a frontline member of the Traffic Corps and a trained instructor in tackling public order issues. Mr Gleeson said that gardal working the beat needed additional manpower to ensure their own safety and the safety of ordinary members of the public. The AGSI had called on the Irish government to prevent the strength of the force falling below 13,000 and bring it up to 14,000. The Republic’s justice minister, Frances Fitzgerald, this week announced that 250 new gardal would be recruited over the coming six months.

��

Kerryman North*Wednesday, 15 April 2015Page: 99


Hospital turns away mental patients with Garda escorts

April 1990 MENTAL patients certified for admission to St. Finan’s Hospital

in Killamey and brought there under Garda escort have been refused admission on at least two occasions it emerged this week.

Listowel Garda Sergeant Tim O’Leary raised the matter at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors annual conference

in Tralee this week. Sergeant O’Leary moved a

motion on behalf of the Kerry branch of the Association demanding

that trained medical staff be in attendance when Gardai are removing patients to mental institutions.

Sergeant O’Leary afterwards

confirmed to The Kerryman that the motion arose out of two separate incidents in which the Gardai removed male patients from Listowel and Tralee to Killarney and admission was refused by hospital staff.

“At present I am aware of instances where Gardai escorted

patients to hospital under Form 4 and when they arrived at the hospital the patient was refused admission and left back into the care of the Gardai. What should we do then, I ask?” said Sgt. O’Leary.

The Listowel based sergeant said there has to be compassion

in these cases but argued that if in being compassionate something irregular occurs the Gardai could find themselves exposed to legal claims.

Sgt. O’Leary said hospital

authorities no longer respond to a request from the Gardai for an escort. He said they did so before the era of cutbacks.

He now wants the Garda Commissioner Eugene Crowley

and Health Minister Rory O’Hanlon to clarify the current situation.

“Unfortunately in this country despite our advances this

type of illness is still stigmatised and all too often relatives,

neighbours and friends do not want to get involved at all, creating

an even greater burden on those involved in dealing with the patient,” Sgt. O’Leary said.

Speaking on a motion calling for a review of policing methods in rural Ireland Sgt. O’Leary said despite low garda numbers on the ground there was high accountability if there is not an

instant response to any given situation.

“The enthusiasm now being shown by the public for the community alert schemes operating

and developing around . the country is clear evidence to me that new formal structures of policing can be developed with the traditional interaction between the public and the Gardai

in the fight against crime,” said O’ Leary.

A total of 131 delegates were in Tralee for the Association’s 12th annual conference which was held in the Brandon Hotel this week. The Association’s general secretary is George Maybury from Kenmare. Among the members of outside

police forces attending as observers was a member of the RUC.

��

Kerryman South*Wednesday, 15 April 2015Page: 99


Hospital turns away mental patients with Garda escorts

April 1990 MENTAL patients certified for admission to St. Finan’s Hospital

in Killamey and brought there under Garda escort have been refused admission on at least two occasions it emerged this week.

Listowel Garda Sergeant Tim O’Leary raised the matter at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors annual conference

in Tralee this week. Sergeant O’Leary moved a

motion on behalf of the Kerry branch of the Association demanding

that trained medical staff be in attendance when Gardai are removing patients to mental institutions.

Sergeant O’Leary afterwards

confirmed to The Kerryman that the motion arose out of two separate incidents in which the Gardai removed male patients from Listowel and Tralee to Killarney and admission was refused by hospital staff.

“At present I am aware of instances where Gardai escorted

patients to hospital under Form 4 and when they arrived at the hospital the patient was refused admission and left back into the care of the Gardai. What should we do then, I ask?” said Sgt. O’Leary.

The Listowel based sergeant said there has to be compassion

in these cases but argued that if in being compassionate something irregular occurs the Gardai could find themselves exposed to legal claims.

Sgt. O’Leary said hospital

authorities no longer respond to a request from the Gardai for an escort. He said they did so before the era of cutbacks.

He now wants the Garda Commissioner Eugene Crowley

and Health Minister Rory O’Hanlon to clarify the current situation.

“Unfortunately in this country despite our advances this

type of illness is still stigmatised and all too often relatives,

neighbours and friends do not want to get involved at all, creating

an even greater burden on those involved in dealing with the patient,” Sgt. O’Leary said.

Speaking on a motion calling for a review of policing methods in rural Ireland Sgt. O’Leary said despite low garda numbers on the ground there was high accountability if there is not an

instant response to any given situation.

“The enthusiasm now being shown by the public for the community alert schemes operating

and developing around the country is clear evidence to me that new formal structures of policing can be developed with the traditional interaction between the public and the Gardai

in the fight against crime,” said O’ Leary.

A total of 131 delegates were in Tralee for the Association’s 12th annual conference which was held in the Brandon Hotel this week. The Association’s general secretary is George Maybury from Kenmare. Among the members of outside

police forces attending as observers was a member of the RUC.

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Irish Independent Tabloid*Thursday, 2 April 2015Page: 20,21


AGSI Annual Conference 2015

Minister admits gardal need big investment to take on cyber criminals

Tom Brady THE Garda force needs major investment in new technology to boost their efforts in combating

cyber crime, the Justice Minister has admitted.

Minister Frances Fitzgerald said the force was entering into a very complex era and the Government had to take a fresh look at resources in a variety of areas, alongside its planned programme of reform.

During the Celtic Tiger years, there had been no investment in information technology and that needed to be addressed.

But she told the annual conference of the Association of

Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in Ttim that this investment could not be delivered immediately.

However, she insisted the Government now had a clear

But the garda supervisors warned that the new recruits would not solve the chronic shortage of personnel available for frontline policing.

Association president Tim Galvin said it was a management

myth that gardai had enough resources.

Frontline “On the frontline, it is like the loaves and fishes scenario.

“We provide an emergency service and we have heard many complaints that people are not getting the service they expect.

“People cannot get that service because we do not have the

resources”, he said. However, the association welcomed the announcement of the additional 250 recruits.

this would be implemented as a commitment had been given for new investment.

The minister had earlier announced the recruitment of

an additional 250 gardai, in two batches, over the next six months, which will bring the overall intake of recruits at the Garda College in Templemore to 550.

She believes that the strength of the force will be kept at 13,000.

Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan had earlier told the conference on Tuesday that the force needed 325 recruits a year to “stand still”, or match the exodus of members through retirements, deaths and resignations.

The current strength of the force is 12,800.

system might survive - but the men and women providing the service might not, as the work overload was becoming more acute.

He claimed the garda organisation was being asked to implement

21st century policing plans but with 19th century back-up, and the lack of investment

in infrastructure was a disgrace.

The minister praised the commitment and dedication of gardai, as had been shown in recent investigations.

“Let’s not paint the entire force as if there is a problem with each and every one of them”, she said.

“Let’s recognise the good work that has been done and a lot of that is hidden.”

General secretary John Redmond said those recruits would

, . , „ , Hboost the morale of the force plan on what was rcQuiroo and . , , . . * <. iw oc With their input of fresh think¬

ing and new ideas. He said there was now a

realisation that it had been a mistake to stop recruitment in 2009 and the then government took its eye off the ball.

Asked if the number of recruits was sufficient, Mr Redmond said: “You have to walk

before you can run and this is an excellent start”.

Enthusiasm He added: “You need new people,

new blood, the enthusiasm that new recruits bring to an organisation”, Mr Redmond added.

But Mr Galvin told the minister that on the frontline they

were putting sticking plasters over the cracks in the hope that the system would not break.

The problem was that the

��

Irish Independent Tabloid*Thursday, 2 April 2015Page: 20,21


Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, AGSI general secretary John Redmond and Gda Supt Mary Gormlej of Trim, Co Meath.

��

Evening Echo*Thursday, 2 April 2015Page: 3


More gardai for Cork streets with new recruitment plan THE recruitment of new garda cadets will lead to more gardai on the beat in Cork. That is according to the vice-president of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, Sergeant Willie Gleeson. The Anglesea Street-based officer welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, that there will be 250 recruits entering the Garda College in 2015. The announcement was made at the annual AGSI conference in Trim, Co Meath.

Two batches of 125 recruits will be accepted into the Garda Training College in the coming months, bringing to 550 the number recruited since last September. Sgt Gleeson said areas such as frontline policing and traffic policing will benefit from the new personnel. There are now 12,800 gardai in the force, 200 below the desired figure. The move has also been welcomed by local Fine Gael TDs, Jerry Buttimer and Dara Murphy.

��



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Nenagh Guardian*Saturday, 11 April 2015Page: 19


IN BRIEF... Plans for a further 250 garda recruits in 2015 SPEAKING ahead of her address to the Annual Conference of the Association

of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) last week, the Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald announced a ramping-up of Garda recruitment with a further 250 recruits to enter Garda College in 2015.

Each intake will comprise 125 recruits, an increase from the too recruits enrolled during the first three intakes since recruitment recommenced last September.

Minister Fitzgerald has received sanction for this recruitment from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin, Minister Fitzgerald stated: "Last September (2014) this Government oversaw

the first recruitment of new Gardai since 2009. We reopened Garda College to new recruits and we committed to not letting it close again.

“To date 300 new recruits have entered Garda College, with the first of these to join the force as sworn members in May. I promised seamless ongoing

recruitment and today I am happy to confirm the recruitment of a further 250 new Gardai over the coming months.” The specific timeframe and phasing for entry to Garda College will be decided

by the Garda Commissioner. "I can also confirm that the next two rounds will see increased intakes of

125 new recruits. This ramped-up recruitment signifies the determination of Government to delivering an effective, responsive police service to protect

our communities and respond to emerging crime trends,” the Minister said. The additional recruitment will bring to 550 the total number of Gardai

that will have been recruited by this Government between September 2014 and 2015. This is in addition to the €27.5 million invested in new Garda vehicles

between 2012 and 2014, marking a massive increase on the €4-8 million provided for in Budgets 2009-2011. The latest 370 new Garda vehicles have come on stream since the start of this year.

Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, Alan Kelly has welcomed the announcement of the new recruits.

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Meath Topic*Thursday, 2 April 2015Page: 1,2


Reform on Trim AGSIagenda More reform and Garda Commissioner engagement demanded at AGSI Annual Conference

BY LARRY COONEY

Reform and more engagement from the Garda Commissioner

were high on the agenda at the 37th Annual Delegate

Conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants &

Inspectors (AGSI) which took place in Trim earlier this week. The 3-day event began last Monday March 30, and concluded on Wednesday at the Knightsbrook Hotel. The Specialist Committee who oversaw the conference was chaired by Vice-President, Antoinette Cunningham, who promised to make reform one of its main agenda items. “We know that this year’s conference

will be one which will focus on the reform of the Garda organisation and so ensure that Conference 2015 takes a deeper look at the people,

politics and policies steering the ship of policing in

Ireland. However, at the core of any reform must be the views of our members and this is always the central plank of the AGSI’s message to Government

and Garda manage¬

ment,” said the AGSI Vice President ahead of this year’s meeting.

NO ENGAGEMENT FROM GARDA COMMISSIONER

But this week’s meeting also began with a stinging criticism

of Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan who the group claims has not responded to several requests for meetings. Since her appointment in succession to the controversial ‘retirement’ of Garda Commissioner Martin

Callinan, she is believed to have not ‘engaged’ with the Garda body. Garda Commissioner

O’Sullivan therefore came in for some criticism at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants earlier this week. Middle ranking gardai were also present in Trim earlier in the week where the issue of pay dominated the agenda. The AGSI and Inspectors say gardai have suffered a 14% pay cut since 2008. Members are also disappointed with the

• CONT. on PAGE 2

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Meath Topic*Thursday, 2 April 2015Page: 1,2


Reform on Trim AGSI agenda

Antoinette's Specialist Team: members of the Specialist Committee who oversaw the conference was chaired by Vice-President Antoinette Cunningham (centre front row) who promised to make reform one of its main agenda items last week.

• CONT. from PAGE 1 level of engagement of Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan on the Issue of sick leave, which they say affects hundreds of mem-

Vice President of AGSI Antoinette Cunningham says Commissioner O’Sullivan

is being inconsiderate to members by not

granting the AGSI the meetings they seek. “We have sought meetings on at least four occasions with the Garda Commissioner

or with the head of human resources and they haven’t happened,” Ms Cunningham said.

“That’s very disappointing for us because these

sickness matters are affecting people in their daily

lives. They’re affecting their families and for us that’s just not good enough.”

“If you’re going to use phrases like constructive engagement, then you have to have engagement as the start of it. If we’re going to write to her as the voice of 2,400 people, then please

give us the meetings that we seek in relation to these matters,” she said.

Ms Cunningham also said members are being left in limbo because of a lack of clarity on sick pay definitions.

“There are outstanding mattes in relation to definitions

of what constitutes an occupational injury, what constitutes a critical illness,” she said.

Without this clarity, some members of the force are “cut off payroll,” says Cunningham.

“And if somebody is cut off payroll, it means there is no money in thenaccount,

so it’s very unfair of the Garda Commissioners

to leave matters in abeyance where we need clarity for our members because they are being affected financially,” she added PROPOSED MERGER OF

THREE GARDA WATCHDOGS

Senior gardai also called for the three watchdogs the Garda Ombudsman, the Garda Inspectorate and

new Garda Authority to be merged into one body. AGSI general John Redmond said that merging the three garda watchdogs into a single

body would save money which should be used to recruit more gardai.

AGSI is also seeking

increased training for officers who carry firearms

and a special driver’s permit so that penalty points

incurred in the line of duty will not appear on the garda’s personal licence. The garda representative body also said that it is

very proud of the work carried out by the investigation team at Blackrock

Garda Station which led to the conviction of Graham Dwyer for the murder of Elaine O’Hara.

��

Galway Advertiser*Thursday, 2 April 2015Page: 12


Senator calls on social media companies to show corporate responsibility in dealing with online abuse enator Lorraine Higgins has called on social media companies to “stop powder puff PR and show some corporate social responsibility to their users”.

Sen Higgins was reacting to the growth of online abuse and threats, raised at the AGSI conference this week, which Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan has committed to investigating.

Sen Higgins has repeatedly been subjected to abusive messages on her Facebook and Twitter accounts, culminating in a recent Garda sweep of her home following a death threat.

“Adults and children alike the length and breadth of this country have been exposed to

sustained and sometimes orchestrated campaigns of abuse online which has been allowed fester because of the lack of clear legislation in this area,” Sen Higgins said in the Seanad this week.

“In my experience, social media companies have shirked their responsibilities completely when it comes to providing a duty of care to their users,” she added. “This has been made abundantly clear to me in recent days, because only last week I wrote to Twitter and Facebook as a result of the inordinate number of messages I received from people who have been subjected to online abuse, and I asked these social media companies to confirm how many complaints they

have received, the length of time they take to investigate them, [and] how many they have referred to the Garda authorities.

“To date they have either failed, refused, and or neglected to provide me with this information. Their reluctance to acknowledge any duty of care to their users is quite simply baffling.

“Despite them having the benefit of a favourable tax rate I think it’s about time they showed some corporate social responsibility and at the very least respond to specific questions asked by me and quit their powder puff PR,” Sen Higgins concluded.

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Irish Independent Tabloid*Tuesday, 31 March 2015Page: 10


Top job for garda who exposed abuse of points Philip Ryan

GARDA whistleblower Maurice McCabe has been given a more senior role in the force following

his exposure of the penalty points scandal.

Sergeant McCabe is currently the acting head of the traffic corps in Mullingar, Co Westmeath,

and it is expected he will be made permanent in the coming weeks.

Sources close to Sgt McCabe said he would “welcome the opportunity” to take charge of the division.

The Irish Independent understands the midlands-based

garda also held discussions with garda management about taking

up a permanent role in the force’s Professional Standards Unit (PSU) after he worked with them on his recent penalty point allegations.

He was also offered a role in a new penalty point evader unit which is due to be established on foot of recommendations made by the PSU’s investigation.

The development is a massive step for Sgt McCabe,

who was barred from accessing garda records at the height of the penalty points controversy.

At the time, he claimed he was harassed and bullied by senior gardai for raising concerns

about garda conduct. His penalty point allegations

led to four separate reports and resulted in a massive overhaul of the fixed charge notice system.

He was recently seconded into the PSU to help investigate a second wave of penalty point allegations he raised after gardai

introduced new measures aimed at stamping out abuse of the system.

New role: Maurice McCabe

��



Use parliamentary privilege sparingly

BACK in March of last year, I got

a series of calls from a man in north Cork. At the time, I was snowed under, and the caller left

voice messages. The gist of his calls was there was serious garda malpractice going on in the town where he lived. It concerned one officer in particular, who was “running amok”. Despite the import of such a call, I didn’t get a chance to respond immediately, and it was only a few weeks after the first call that I was in

a position to answer. He was relieved at finally collaring me

over the “corruption”. Okay so, says he, get a load of this. The local guard, a man who was cock o’ the walk, has been driving around for the last three months with no motor tax on his vehicle. That wasn’t all...

I tried hard not to laugh. No doubt about it. A guard who wouldn’t have his tax bang up to date was capable of corruption

of the most insidious kind. The man from north Cork came into my

head last week when the latest allegations of garda malpractice were aired in the Dail. Clare Daly, used Leader’s Questions to air an allegation that gardai had been involved in a fatal shooting, and senior elements of the force in covering it up.

“This is a question regarding a person who contacted you, (Enda Kenny) last year and told you he had information of a garda being present in a room when a civilian was shot by gardai and of being ordered by his superiors to say he wasn’t present,” Ms Daly said.

If there is any truth to the allegation, then we’re in more serious trouble than ever imagined. The commissioner and most senior management would have to resign immediately, and a criminal investigation

commenced. If there is substance to it, criminal charges should be brought against everybody who had any role in either murder or cover-up. And if Kenny or any of his ministers know anything about it, and haven’t acted with proper authority, they have to go immediately. A police force involved in murdering a citizen and covering up the crime takes on the character of a fascist gang.

There was a time when the airing of such an allegation in parliament would have brought the airways alive, generated

pages of print, and cleared the Dail agenda. That was a time when most citizens would have regarded such a declaration

in the citadel of democracy as “gospel”. Yet, there was precious little reaction. Are we now at a stage where the media and general public shrug shoulders when a startling allegation is made under parliamentary privilege?

A fortnight ago, Daly’s kindred spirit, Mick Wallace, also made allegations of garda malpractice under parliamentary

privilege. He alluded to serious corruption by a senior officer, identifiable

from the details supplied by Wallace. The allegations were aired while the

annual conference of the association of sergeants and inspectors (AGSI) was taking

place. AGSI president Tim Galvin was not amused, saying there were no consequences

for TDs who made allegations under privilege. “We all need to be treated in a fair and equitable fashion, not one rule for the privileged few, who can use privileges for political gain,” he said.

Last week, it emerged the association of Garda Superintendents has lodged a formal

complaint with the Ceann Comhairle about parliamentary privilege being used to tarnish the good name of its members.

The role of Daly and Wallace in making allegations under privilege is complicated by a few factors. Both could claim to be the victims of garda malpractice themselves.

In January 2013 Daly was arrested for drink driving, handcuffed, and put in a cell—it turned out she was not over the limit. The arrest was then leaked to the media within hours. This was at a time when she was prominent in highlighting abuse of the penalty points system.

Wallace once received a casual, verbal caution about using a mobile phone while stopped at a traffic light. That inconsequential

encounter was conveyed all the way to the then garda commissioner, who passed it onto then Minister for Justice,

Alan Shatter, who in turn aired it on TV in an attempt to discredit Wallace.

So both have some idea of what elements in the force are capable of. That experience could either cloud judgement, or prompt an astute head to exercise caution

in dealing with the issue, lest an agenda be perceived.

Both TDs were involved in exposing the penalty points scandal, which included the use of Dail privilege to accurately name high-profile individuals who had had their points quashed.

Wallace used Dail privilege in January last year to read a transcript of a conversation

between Sergeant Maurice McCabe and the confidential recipient Oliver Connolly. That intervention, it could be argued, ultimately led to the establishment of the Guerin Report, and

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vindication of McCabe’s serious allegations about malpractice in criminal

investigations. Now, however, questions arise as to

whether both TDs are airing allegations under privilege without any hard evidence.

Having been proved right in relation to McCabe, are they just taking a punt that all other allegations might have some substance?

This newspaper was to the fore in reporting McCabe’s allegations and exposing malpractice within the force. But it is also a given other allegations against gardai are without foundation.

Filtering is required to find out which have substance and demand further attention. My friend in North Cork is not alone in harbouring a grudge against a member of the force. Others genuinely believe their serious allegations have substance,

but that belief may be contaminated by a grievance of one sort or another. Just because somebody has a legit¬

imate grievance, it does not automatically follow that malpractice is at issue. And then, there are the allegations that do have substance.

A review panel is examining around 300 cases where garda malpractice is alleged. Inevitably, a large number of these will be deemed to be unworthy of further examination.

That’s what filtering is about. Using Dail privilege as a filter is not on.

For that privilege to retain its power and legitimacy, it needs to be used sparingly and within the framework for which it was designed.

The cavalier manner in which privilege appears to have been availed of by Wallace and Daly is in a different league to its cynical

use by Mary Lou McDonald, who named former politicians as being suspected

of tax evasion and cover up. (The politicians all denied it subsequently).

It does, however, further devalue a concept which is a vital tenet in a democracy.

There is understandable disaffection with

mainstream politics right now, but that does not legitimise the devaluing of all traditions of parliament,

particularly one that is

a valuable tool in particular circumstances.

Let’s be careful out there.

66Questions arise as to whether both TDs are airing allegations under privilege without any hard evidence

TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly could both claim to be the victims of garda malpractice themselves in the last couple of years.

Picture: Niall Carson/PA

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agsi 2015 annual delegate conference report

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