Mayo GRA representative refuses to rule out withdrawal of services after no confidence vote

MAYO’S representative on the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has refused to rule out a potential withdrawal of services as part of an escalation of an ongoing dispute over garda working conditions.

This comes after over 98 percent of balloted GRA members voted no confidence in Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

Garda Ronan O’Grady told The Mayo News that GRA members would act on foot of a special conference to be held on September 27 where potential future actions will be considered.

The GRA are opposing plans to reintroduce a roster which would see gardaí work six days before having three days off.

Garda representatives have called for the current roster - which sees officers work four 12-hour shifts in a row before having four days off - to be kept in place.

The existing roster was introduced as a temporary measure during the Covid-19 pandemic but is due to be scrapped by November 6.

It has been reported that gardaí may continue to work their current rosters after November, which have proved popular among gardaí due to better work-life balance.

Commissioner Harris has argued that the existing Covid-era roster has resulted in 60 working hours being lost per garda annually.

The Commissioner has said the reintroduction of the old rosters will create 13,000 extra policing hours per week.

Gardaí are forbidden from striking, but previous disputes have resulted in so-called ‘blue flu’ where thousands of officers have simultaneously called in sick to work.

Special conference

WHEN asked if gardaí would consider withdrawing their services to escalate the dispute, Garda O’Grady said: “We’ll be led by a special conference on September 27 where there’ll be 150-odd delegates around the country at it. If there is action, whatever form that takes will be decided there.”

The Louisburgh native said pay, pensions, recruitment and retention and bureaucracy were the other main issues of concern facing serving gardaí.

He also refuted Commissioner Harris’s claim that the vote of no confidence against him was ‘very personalised’ and that it was ‘unclear’ what gardaí were voting for.

“I totally refute that. This wasn’t personal. This is basically going on for a few years. The roster was the straw that broke the camel’s back really. It’s nothing personal whatsoever,” Garda O’Grady said.

“He’s saying that they didn’t know what they were voting for, that they were voting on the roster. It couldn’t be any clearer, do you have confidence in the garda commissioner, yes or no?”

Commissioner Harris has said he would not resign over the issue, a move he said would be ‘completely illogical’.

Independent county councillor Christy Hyland said the Commissioner should consider his position in light of the no confidence vote, which he said was ‘one factor of many factors’ which were causing ‘serious problems’ in An Garda Síochána.

The former garda said the pre-Covid roster was ‘not deliverable because they don’t have the numbers to deliver it’.

“The commissioner and his advisers should consider their position because the budget had been increased by 45 percent since 2015 … and the people are getting a less service, so serious questions remain,” he told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday).

“I said last year at a Joint Policing Committee meeting that the gardaí are heading for a serious crisis. Unfortunately, my words have come true.”