Mr. Ronan Slevin:

On behalf of the Garda Representative Association, I thank the Cathaoirleach and the joint committee for the invitation to make our submission on a number of policing matters. Our submission will primarily focus on all matters relating to the brief given, plus a number of other issues of deep concern to our membership and what we believe affects the safe delivery of a policing service that meets the needs of the public we serve.

First, we will address the ongoing crisis in recruitment and retention. Garda management’s report Transforming An Garda Síochána 2018-2024, published just last week, made one glaring and obvious omission in that it failed to address the issue of inadequate numbers in our force. It also failed to address any failures in this respect over the past seven years or to offer any recommendations or solutions as to how this issue can be resolved. During the term this report refers to, the number of Garda members has reduced from almost 15,000 to just over 14,000. This is at a time when the population has exploded by 500,000. Both the Government and the Commissioner himself have admitted in recent months that this number should be far greater. We at the GRA believe that this number should be somewhere nearer 17,000 to fall into line with similar jurisdictions of comparable size and demographics.

This current recruitment and retention crisis has been ongoing for the last five years. The problem began in 2019, when the Commissioner reduced the planned and approved intake of 800 recruits to 600. The following year, 2020, saw the pandemic. Garda management closed the Garda College until 2021, when recruitment recommenced but with lower numbers. These low numbers of applications have continued to this day, with just 120 attested in the latest round instead of the promised 200.

In the absence of any meaningful engagement or collaboration with the Government and associated parties, at the end of 2024, the GRA proposed a number of measures to tackle this crisis, including raising the Garda trainee allowance, an increment on the pay of fully trained and attested members, fewer points on the public pay scale to expedite members' reaching an affordable living wage, an accommodation allowance for large urban areas to help attract new recruits, and a long-service increment and improved pension rewards to encourage longer retention of the experienced members we already have. Unfortunately, these suggestions have been met with a wall of silence to date.

There remains a very significant issue with morale within the ranks of An Garda Síochána, with little action being taken to address the issue. The continuous issuing of policies and procedures that members must comply with and the excessive use of discipline and suspension have resulted in members being in fear of receiving any form of complaint as there is little trust in the discipline process. Sadly, the recently enacted conduct, performance and standards of professional behaviour regulations will do little to dispel this fear. The now infamous bicycle case not only highlights the excessive use of suspension but also highlights the lack of understanding among senior Garda members of how community policing works. The more recent case in Limerick, where a member was cleared of all 22 charges after an investigation that lasted nearly seven years while he languished on suspension, further highlights the fears members face when they perform their duty and complaints and investigations are launched.

The current operational policing model, OPM, was introduced in 2019 as part of the Government reform program A Policing Service for Our Future, which arose from the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. The aim of this model was to modernise the Garda by decentralising decision-making, enhancing community engagement and improving front-line visibility. This has proved to be an unmitigated disaster and is not fit for purpose. It has created super-sized divisions that span many counties and has starved communities of local stations and local policing. In many ways, "division" is the key word here as that is exactly what this model has caused between our trusted and dedicated members and the public and communities they serve. Prior to the implementation of the OPM, Ireland possessed the most desired model of community policing in the policing world. As a result of the OPM, the local garda has been stripped from the community. Where previously the majority of incidents in country areas were investigated by the local garda, which resulted in increased local knowledge being applied, under the OPM, while most incidents are still investigated, this is now done by gardaí stationed miles away who have little or no knowledge of the community and no real reason to expand that knowledge. We discuss this further in our submission and respectfully invite questions, but suffice it to say the OPM continues to encounter challenges and fails to deliver on the commitments made.

As for roads policing, the Garda Commissioner appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport last year, where he committed to adding 75 members to the roads policing unit in 2024 and a further 75 in 2025. Despite this, only 23 members were added last year. In February 2025, around 620 members were attached to roads policing. In 2009, that figure was in excess of 1,000.

The last time we appeared before this committee was back in October 2023, when we outlined many of these same issues. We also spoke of our fears about the lack of proper public order training and safety equipment. Just one month later, we witnessed some of the most shameful riots ever seen on our capital city, followed by the disturbances in Coolock just months later. The committee then published a number of recommendations, including: that high visibility of gardaí must be maintained, with an increased emphasis on recruitment; that an independent pay review body be established to address pay and pensions, including supplementary pension reform; that the three-county divisional operational model be re-examined; and that comprehensive in-person training and driver training be reintroduced alongside the establishment of a pursuit policy. Simply not enough has been done to address these issues and recommendations in the intervening 18 months.

It was once the case that the best recruiters for careers in An Garda Síochána were gardaí themselves. Sadly, this is no longer the case. Exit interviews carried out by the GRA clearly show serious areas of concern among members who have decided to leave the organisation. These issues, in conjunction with the overall feeling of low morale, recently led to a vote of no confidence in the Garda Commissioner. Sadly, little has changed since. Denial of low morale and associated issues continue. I thank the members for their time.