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\n Niall O’Connor<\/p>\n
A SENIOR GARDA Representative Association (GRA) member is being investigated formally by An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na because the officer publicly discussed workplace concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The serving garda has spoken publicly on a range of topics about problems faced by rank and file garda\u00ed \u2013 that topic has included speaking about the lack of garda pursuit training.<\/p>\n
It is understood the garda has been formally informed about the discipline procedure recently.<\/p>\n
Ronan Slevin, GRA General Secretary, has criticised the move by garda management.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is no understatement to say that we are shocked and disappointed that garda management would come after one of our elected representatives in this manner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot stress enough that the GRA will continue to vigorously defend the right of our senior elected representatives to comment publicly on the health, safety, rights and wellbeing of their members in An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite incredulous in the aftermath of this week\u2019s Full Disclosure documentary on RTE that GRA representatives are being effectively gagged and disciplined for doing exactly what they were elected to do, and that is to voice the concerns and challenges that we face in an incredibly dangerous and difficult working environment,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The RTE Investigates programme examined allegations that whistleblowers were targeted when they raised concerns within the garda organisation\u2019s protected disclosure system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is understood that the potential disciplinary offence is linked to a section of the Garda Code, which is the internal human resources document used to govern the activities of serving garda\u00ed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A statement has been requested from the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n
In a statement, a spokesman for An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na said it would not comment on internal discipline matters, but did comment on its internal procedures when dealing with the media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na has a clear stated policy on who may speak to the media on operational matters and this is laid out in the Garda Code, which applies to all members of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGarda management has on several occasions over the last number of years advised GRA management of this stipulation in the Garda Code.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier this month, Garda senior management wrote to the GRA in relation to this and related matters,\u201d it said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The garda statement went on to say that it \u201crespects the mandate of the Garda associations\u201d as set out in Section 59 of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024.<\/p>\n
The garda spokesman said the section describes representative associations representing their members in matters affecting their welfare and efficiency, including pay, pensions and conditions of service.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na works with the Garda associations in constructive and professional engagement in line with industrial relations normal practice,\u201d it added.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niall O’Connor A SENIOR GARDA Representative Association (GRA) member is being investigated formally by An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na because…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38184,96324,61,60,43,152584],"class_list":["post-628910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-garda-representative-association","tag-gra","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-whistleblower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628910","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=628910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}