Mr. Ronan Clogher:

With regard to the gender issue, no obvious trends were apparent among people leaving An Garda Síochána and it seems to be across the board.

As to what I would do if I were the new Commissioner, the AGSI would look at the incumbent Commissioner and say that we are looking for strong leadership. The morale issue is fed by frustration. Nobody is listening to what our association or membership are saying. This has been going on for years. We get paid lip service when we go to the Department of Justice. We are ignored in the WRC and the Labour Court when we are discussing national pay agreements, and we are put in a separate room. Do we have collective bargaining? No, we do not, and we are not treated as an equal partner. Our association’s view is that we have been ignored for years and years. We want solutions. We are a solutions-focused organisation but nobody will listen. That is a growing frustration.

In October 2023, I was before the previous committee. One of the issues discussed, which was causing a lot of frustration at that time, was subsistence and travel. The rates were amended in 2009 during the time of the financial crisis and were put back to 2002 levels. We are still on those rates, while our colleagues in the Civil Service are on a lot more and are in line with the CPI, which was recently adjusted last February. That has been in the WRC since 2 February last year. We arrived at an agreement outside the WRC and that was sent to Revenue on 15 November 2024, but we still have no progress. It is the minor industrial relations matters that we can make no progress on that leads to a huge level of frustration within An Garda Síochána.

Regarding the courts, this is an historical problem that has been going on for years. An Garda Síochána can only try its best to get an investigation file to the DPP as soon as possible. Like everyone else, we are only servants of the courts and what the courts decide to do is their prerogative after that. We do not have enough resources. We would love to set targets to turn over an investigation file and get it into the DPP in six weeks but, as it stands, with the level of resources, that would be impossible. Huge pressure is put on members over investigation files and we have seen high-profile incidents in the past where the pressure was obvious. It is a difficulty within An Garda Síochána to get those files in.

In addition, if an investigation slips, there is the added dimension of discipline coming at members as well. That is another issue within the force because nobody can make a mistake. It is a big problem that is putting off people and it is leading to the recruitment and retention issue. Initially, it could be said that An Garda Síochána was a vocational-type career choice and there were generations of various families who always joined. However, what we now have is that serving current members of An Garda Síochána are not encouraging, say, their children, family members or the public to join. Likewise, community gardaí were always out in the public arena and people looked up to them. That is how I joined An Garda Síochána I looked up to the community gardaí who trained our soccer or Gaelic team. That is replicated in every town across the country. The community gardaí are not there and people are not being encouraged to join An Garda Síochána.