At the final day of the GRA\u2019s annual conference in Westport, Co Mayo, delegates passed a series of urgent motions highlighting frustration with the Government and garda management.<\/p>\n
Delegates declared a need to \u201cteach the Irish Government a lesson\u201d.<\/p>\n
Deputy general secretary James \u00adMorrisroe said: \u201cThe concerns are that we don\u2019t have resources, the amount of numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re languishing at about 14,500 garda\u00ed and, as we saw in the exceptional event [recently] we just don\u2019t have the numbers to police normal circumstances.<\/p>\n
That means 71 days of rest days being cancelled<\/p>\n
\u201cSo with the extraordinary events coming up in the presidency, we certainly feel that our members will be stretched to the pin of their collar.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeave will be cancelled. Rest days will be cancelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are 71 days, potentially, of extraordinary events.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would be very concerned in relation to the welfare of our members in relation to the policing of the EU presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen in the events of the past weeks what can happen at a moment\u2019s notice, and on social media where events are organised and we have to respond rapidly to those events.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is potential for disruption during the six months. \u2029It\u2019s a long six months.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many extraordinary events in the presidency? There will be a lot. We haven\u2019t been given the full plan, but there could be potentially 71 days of extraordinary events.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I say 71 days, that means 71 days of rest days being cancelled. You would have a lot of movement of garda members throughout the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
US president Donald Trump is likely to attend the Irish Open at his Co Clare golf course. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n
After lengthy discussions and at times heated debate, delegates voted to withdraw from all planning meetings for the upcoming events.<\/p>\n
The GRA will also write to Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers to formally notify him that the association considers itself to be \u201cnow in dispute\u201d with his department.<\/p>\n
One motion stated that until outstanding issues around pay and conditions are addressed, the association would \u201cadvise our members not to co-operate with the planning for or the policing of the EU presidency and Irish Open\u201d.<\/p>\n
The possibility of Donald Trump coming to that, that\u2019s a huge security concern<\/p>\n
It comes amid growing speculation that US president Donald Trump will attend the tournament at his golf resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare, in September.<\/p>\n
A separate motion tabled directed the general secretary to write to the Garda Commissioner insisting that the Midlands Working Time Agreement 2024 \u201chas to be complied with in full during the European presidency\u201d.<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed are legally banned from taking industrial action, although they have held unofficial \u201cblue flu\u201d protests in the past.<\/p>\n
GRA vice-president Niall Hodgins told delegates that the Government\u2019s treatment of the concerns raised by serving garda\u00ed was not acceptable.<\/p>\n
It had been announced that \u20ac125m was being provided in overtime payments<\/p>\n
He said the Government must address members\u2019 pay and conditions, including travel expenses, implement the agreed 1pc pay increase \u2013 due since last September \u2013 and give the GRA a seat at the table for the upcoming national pay talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a dispute that has gone on for far too long. Minister Chambers and his department have continuously placed us on the long finger and kicked us down the road and refused to honour already agreed positions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Specifically in relation to the policing of a Trump visit, Mr Morrisroe said: \u201cThat\u2019s an extra event. You have the Irish Open in September. The possibility of Donald Trump coming to that, that\u2019s a huge security concern for our members. \u2029<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would be expected to police that again at a moment\u2019s notice. Donald Trump might decide this evening to come tomorrow morning, so it\u2019s just \u2018drop everything and go to where he is\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it had been announced that \u20ac125m was being provided in overtime payments for the EU presidency but that in itself just shows that garda\u00ed are papering over the cracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 14,500 members, we would feel we need 17,000 or 18,000 members in the normal course of events for normal policing,\u201d he said. \u201cTo allocate such a large sum for probably overtime payments, our members would be expected to come in probably seven days a week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the final day of the GRA\u2019s annual conference in Westport, Co Mayo, delegates passed a series of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,969,2244,61,60,1393,13808,26023,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-412711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-irish-open","14":"tag-jack-chambers","15":"tag-ken-foy","16":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}