{"id":616387,"date":"2026-09-06T15:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T15:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/616387\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T15:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T15:54:18","slug":"gra-to-discuss-specific-actions-over-working-conditions-ahead-of-trump-ireland-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/616387\/","title":{"rendered":"GRA to discuss \u2018specific actions\u2019 over working conditions ahead of Trump Ireland visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The threat of industrial action by frontline garda\u00ed ahead of US president Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s visit to Ireland next weekend has been averted.<\/p>\n

But an emergency meeting of the governing body of the Garda Representative Association (GRA)<\/a> will be held the following week in a bid to agree on actions targeting \u201cspecific events\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following two days of intense meetings of the GRA Central Executive Committee (CEC) last Wednesday and Thursday, national representatives are now consulting with divisional representatives around the country.<\/p>\n

They are gathering their views on the cancellation of garda leave and rest breaks in order to police EU Presidency<\/a> events and the US visit.<\/p>\n

The GRA, which has around 11,740 members, is also seeking legal advice on some of the options that have been put forward.<\/p>\n

The matter has reached a crisis point within the GRA after the association\u2019s Dublin Regional Committee held a lengthy closed-door meeting last Monday.<\/p>\n

It followed the designation by Garda HQ of the days leading up to and during Mr Trump\u2019s visit on September 12 and 13 as an \u201cextraordinary event\u201d.<\/p>\n

These events involve the cancellation of leave, extended working hours and restrictions, or cancellation, of rest breaks.<\/p>\n

The latest designation follows declarations of \u201cextraordinary events\u201d for previous EU Presidency events, with more events to come in the months ahead.<\/p>\n

One of the issues for garda\u00ed regarding the US visit is the requirement for garda\u00ed in Dublin to find their own accommodation in Co Clare<\/a> when Mr Trump leaves the capital and travels to his golf club in Doonbeg, where the Irish Open<\/a> finishes on Sunday.<\/p>\n

As reported in the Irish Examiner, the Dublin committee called on the CEC to discuss \u201cnumerous blatant breaches\u201d<\/a> of working time legislation and what it said was the \u201cnon-implementation\u201d of subsistence and travel arrangements.<\/p>\n

\u2018Subsistence\u2019 relates to tax-free allowances for food, drink and accommodation expenses when covering events away from a garda\u2019s permanent station.<\/p>\n

One source said: \u201cThe main issue with extraordinary events is the breaches of rest periods and cancelling of rest days ad nauseam.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The CEC held meetings last Wednesday and Thursday, attended by the Dublin Regional Committee as well as the president, vice-president, deputy general secretary, assistant general secretary and industrial relations officer. The general secretary was out of the country.<\/p>\n

It is understood the meetings involved a \u201crobust\u201d exchange of views, but calls to carry out some kind of actions leading up to Mr Trump\u2019s visit were set aside, pending a full meeting in two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

The Irish Examiner understands that legal advice has been sought on some of the options put forward.<\/p>\n

National representatives are to \u201cimmediately consult\u201d with their divisional representatives and take their views back to the CEC next week, where a \u201cdefinitive national stance\u201d is to be agreed.<\/p>\n

It is thought that events are to be identified that will be the target of specific \u201cactions\u201d. Exactly what type of actions would be taken is not yet clear.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed raise concerns over working hours and accommodation\u00a0<\/p>\n

GRA sources say the general feeling is that \u201cmembers\u2019 goodwill is consistently being taken advantage of\u201d by Garda management, who, they claim, continue to breach national agreements on working hours and breaks.<\/p>\n

Sources have said that recent arrangements for EU policing events were a \u201cshambles\u201d, with members being regularly directed to work 15- to 16-hour tours, or shifts.<\/p>\n

The sources said there was \u201cserious concern\u201d regarding accommodation arrangements and operational orders for members during the Trump visit and Irish Open.<\/p>\n

They said there is still no accommodation in Clare for numerous members and feared the situation could deteriorate in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Garda management says pressure is \u2018out of their control\u2019<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Garda management sources said they were \u201ctrying to limit\u201d the number of extraordinary events but that the situation was \u201cout of their control\u201d, with the Trump visit coming on top of the EU Presidency events.<\/p>\n

They said they appreciated \u201cthe pressure on garda\u00ed\u201d but that the organisation had to do its job and police these State events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The threat of industrial action by frontline garda\u00ed ahead of US president Donald Trump\u2019s visit to Ireland next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[185250,45,969,74289,61,60,1393,43],"class_list":["post-616387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-clare-news","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-donald-trump","tag-eu-presidency","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-open","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616387","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=616387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}