{"id":412912,"date":"2026-04-23T04:49:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/412912\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:49:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:49:29","slug":"frontline-gardai-could-lose-more-than-70-days-off-due-to-irelands-eu-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/412912\/","title":{"rendered":"Frontline Gardai could lose more than 70 days off due to Ireland’s EU presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

The annual conference of the GRA in Westport heard on Wednesday that the force may declare 71 so-called extraordinary events during the six-month presidency\"Garda\"<\/p>\n

Gardai (stock image)(Image: Colin Keegan, Collins Agency, Dublin)<\/p>\n

Frontline gardai may lose more than 70 days off – to make sure Ireland\u2019s EU presidency<\/a> is policed properly, it has emerged.<\/p>\n

The annual conference of the Garda Representative Association<\/a> in Westport in Co Mayo<\/a> heard on Wednesday that the force may declare 71 so-called extraordinary events during the six-month presidency.<\/p>\n

That would mean officers\u2019 days off would be cancelled on each event – to ensure there are enough officers on the ground.<\/p>\n

The presidency, which begins in July, will see a large number of high profile meetings with VIPs and politicians – and Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly needs as many officers as possible to be deployed for security operations.<\/p>\n

But James Morrisroe, the deputy general secretary of the GRA, which represents around 10,500 rank and file officers of the 14,400-strong force, has warned that their workload is close to breaking point.<\/p>\n

And he warned that the fuel protests of earlier this month that saw the force declare an exceptional event that saw officers called in at short notice from days off and annual leave to deal with the crisis, showed that there were simply not enough gardai.<\/p>\n

He said: “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

“The concerns are that we don’t have resources, the amount of numbers.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re languishing at about 14,500 gardai and as we saw in the exceptional event over the past week, a week and a half ago, we just don\u2019t have the numbers to police normal circumstances.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo Shows: At the opening of the Garda Representative Association 47th conference in Killarney Co Kerry.
\n(l) Deputy General Secretary James Morrisroe,General Secretary Ronan Slevlin, President Mark O’Meara, with Assistant General Secretary Tara McManus, and Vice President Niall Hodgins.
\nDate: 28.04.2025
\nPhoto:.Mick O’Neill.<\/p>\n

“With the extraordinary events coming up in the presidency, we certainly feel that our members will be stretched to the pin of their collar. Leave will be cancelled. Rest days will be cancelled.<\/p>\n

“There are 71 days, potentially, of extraordinary events where rest days possibly will be cancelled.<\/p>\n

“We would be very concerned in relation to the welfare of our members in relation to the policing of the EU presidency.<\/p>\n

“We 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

“There is potential for disruption during the six months. It’s a long six months.<\/p>\n

“I just feel we don’t have the numbers and this would be a welfare issue for our members. We haven’t been given the full plan, but there could be potentially 71 days of extraordinary events.<\/p>\n

“When I say 71 days, that means 71 days of rest days being cancelled: a three or four day event maybe in Dublin, another three or four day event in Mayo, another three or four day event in Cork.<\/p>\n

“It would be three days here, three days there and follow on from Dublin to Cork, to Mayo.<\/p>\n

“You would have a lot of movement of Garda members throughout the country.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Sign up to our new Crime Ireland newsletter and get exclusive content from Michael O’Toole and Paul Healy<\/p>\n

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Justice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a>, who attended the conference on Tuesday, revealed that he has now allocated \u20ac125 million for Garda overtime during the presidency – more than the \u20ac100 million paid out last year in total.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan TD, addresses the Garda Representative Associations 48th Annual Delegate Conference is held in Westport, Co. Mayo.(Image: Conor \u00d3 Mear\u00e1in)<\/p>\n

But Mr Morrisroe said that figure laid bare the fact that there were not enough gardai in the first place.<\/p>\n

He said: “He has announced \u20ac125 million for the EU presidency but that in itself just shows that we’re papering over the cracks.<\/p>\n

“We have 14,500 members, we would feel we need 17,000 or 18,000 members in the normal course of events for normal policing.<\/p>\n

“To allocate such a large sum for probably overtime payments, our members would be expected to come in probably seven days a week.”<\/p>\n

And he added: “Our members are suffering from burnout as we speak.<\/p>\n

“There were 11 extraordinary events last year in the (Dublin region) alone. That means 11, three or four days of rest days being cancelled.<\/p>\n

“So members will be working 13 or 14 days in a row. It’s the welfare of our members I’m concerned about.”<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The annual conference of the GRA in Westport heard on Wednesday that the force may declare 71 so-called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,38184,96324,61,60,8764,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-412912","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-garda-representative-association","10":"tag-gra","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-mayo","14":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412912","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=412912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}