Ms Antoinette Cunningham:

I thank the Chair and the members for the opportunity to address the committee. I should make it clear we are not here representing An Garda Síochána. We are representing the middle-ranking sergeants and inspectors as a staff representative association. The committee will also appreciate that many of the matters discussed already are grounded in political decisions and the AGSI, as a staff association, is bound by our rules to be apolitical. Therefore, commentary on political decisions is not within our remit and is not appropriate for us to engage in. However, a specific question was asked by the committee about Garda training resources and other matters concerning An Garda Síochána. Therefore, the majority of our submission concentrates on these areas. I just wanted to clarify those matters.

As we know, on 11 March 2020 the director general of the World Health Organization, WHO, declared Covid-19 a global pandemic. The effect in Ireland was immediate, with the closure of schools, colleges, childcare facilities and cultural institutions. Large gatherings were cancelled, pubs, restaurants and businesses were closed and restrictions were placed immediately on the movement of people. On 16 March 2020, the Garda Commissioner notified us, as a staff association, that a policing requirement was needed and that, with immediate effect, all members of our association would be moved from their regular pattern of duty, namely, six days on and four days off, and mainly ten-hour shifts, to a 12-hour policing requirement with a shift pattern of four days on and four days off.

This shift pattern also meant the movement of AGSI personnel from key roles in training, traffic, non-core units, community policing and various crime and training functions to ensure the availability of as many front-line personnel as possible. With no objections and overnight notice and with considerable disruption to family life, childcare and carer arrangements, the members of the AGSI moved immediately to the shift patterns required by the Garda Commissioner in an effort to meet the policing requirement. We did this to support the Garda Commissioner, the Garda organisation and do whatever was required of us to ensure the safety of the people while policing this pandemic.

It is important to state again that the AGSI is not a part of the decision-making process regarding public health regulations or any related restrictions imposed during the health emergency. It will be appreciated that it was difficult at times to hear the role of the Garda being played out in public debate. However, AGSI members were steadfast in supporting the Garda Commissioner to provide the service required and we continue to do our jobs in the most professional way possible.

One of the major challenges for us involved the enforcement of health regulations. Included in our written submission to the committee is a visual representation showing a sample of some of the regulations members of the AGSI had to, and continue to have to, enforce. The committee will appreciate that it was exhausting for sergeants and inspectors to try to keep up with the new legislation and regulations imposed by the Government. The training function in An Garda Síochána was cancelled to support the policing requirement on the front line.

It was mainly left to us, the sergeants and inspectors, as middle-ranking supervisors to interpret, to disseminate and to instruct our Garda colleagues on these new and additional powers. This interruption to training placed an additional burden on our members. The committee can appreciate the regulations were frequently lengthy, complex in nature and required deep reading to understand and implement. As the supervisory rank, this fell mainly to the members of AGSI. While some assistance was provided through the Covid unit established at Garda headquarters, this was deemed insufficient for our needs and again, it was mainly left to us to try to find a way to implement and understand these regulations.

On a positive note, the "four Es" approach, namely, to engage, explain, encourage and, as a last resort, enforce regulations, was very quickly understood by AGSI members. We constantly reminded our colleagues we must be fair, reasonable, equitable and respectful of members of the public and must ensure all human rights were adhered to and that engagement with the public was a key element to ensuring co-operation with the regulations. This was received very positively at the start with a high level of interactions with the public, and co-operation from them, being reported by our members. However, as the policing requirements moved on, we remained concerned at the various legislative measures being debated over the national airwaves. These included suggestions Garda members could enter people’s homes to check whether they were self-quarantining and on matters relating to house parties and gatherings in private dwellings. We tried to provide clarity as best we could via the platforms and forums available to us. Again, we were deeply concerned about any possible implications this might have for our members, who are very conscious of the constitutional rights of citizens at all times.

We are very concerned about the impact of the pandemic on the health and safety of our own members. This was particularly relevant when mandatory hotel quarantining was introduced. The role of the Garda in it, while downplayed at first, became very important very quickly when difficulties emerged almost immediately. The vaccination programme for Garda members was unsatisfactory at this point, with everybody else involved in the process being vaccinated while members were not.

On another positive note, the establishment of the divisional protective services units, DPSUs, prior to the pandemic proved invaluable in allowing our members to continue to make regular contact with victims of domestic violence and provide reassurance and support, as well as to progress investigations. The AGSI used every opportunity we had, through our own internal communications, media and social media, to remind our members that the regulations and travel restrictions did not apply to victims of domestic violence.

The protest on Grafton Street on 27 February showed the challenges between the legitimate right of people to engage in protest and the policing requirement also needed on that particular day. Members of the AGSI were severely tested with the deliberate firing of a missile at the gardaí showing the dangerous and hostile environment that can emerge from such protests. When further conflictual and public order incidents have arisen, even in recent times, criticism was levelled at members of our association appearing in riot gear, without proper debate about why it was needed in the first place, which was of course to protect the health and safety of the members of the AGSI when missiles and bottles were being thrown at them.

There was no engagement by Government with staff associations on the policing of the pandemic at any point. We think this was unacceptable. Given the short timeframe at the start of the pandemic, we understand why engagement might not have been possible but as we moved through the policing of the pandemic there was plenty of opportunity for greater engagement with the Garda staff associations and we believe this was a missed opportunity.

With the country in lockdown, the Garda focus was on high-visibility patrolling, and particularly on supporting the elderly and vulnerable in communities. The Government did supply additional community-based patrol cars to the Garda and the AGSI found these to be an invaluable resource to allowing Garda members to do what they do best, namely, interacting with communities, delivering groceries and prescriptions, collecting messages, assisting in small domestic chores and checking on relatives for people who genuinely could not visit their own family members. Many a positive socially-distanced chat was needed. No training was needed for these tasks, as it is embedded in the culture of members of AGSI to protect and serve to do what we do best.

The resourcing of matters such as PPE for AGSI members, while slow initially, did come on stream fairly quickly. However, of particular concern to us was the number of times members of AGSI were deliberately spat at with blood or saliva, causing great distress to members of our association.

I will move on because I am conscious of time. My final point is that we are really concerned that in the end, the regulations became viewed as Garda regulations not health regulations. This is very troublesome to us and to members of our association, who are deeply conscious of the need for us to go back, to police by consent and uphold the relationship between members of An Garda Síochána, the AGSI, and members of the public. We are acutely aware of the challenges posed to us during the policing of Covid. However, unquestionably and immediately, we remain committed to the policing of this pandemic and continue to do so, although there are many concerns expressed in our submission to the committee. Perhaps there will be more time to discuss those later.