GRA boss: Officers are not prepared to tackle more riots
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GRA chiefs have said gardai are facing threats and abuse from the so-called far right and are not prepared to tackle more riots.
On the opening day of the annual conference in Westport in Co Mayo, GRA President Brendan O’connor was asked about policing protests.
He said: “It’s a very complex issue. It presents challenges for our members both in terms of the experiences they have personally of being put under that pressure and that level of abuse and threat,” he said.
“We’ve seen it all in recent days from elected representatives finding themselves on the receiving end and their homes being subject of it.
“It presents a huge challenge as I say to the gardai who are subject to it in responding to it, and the legislation we’re relying on was probably drafted at a time when this sort of thing wasn’t envisaged.
“Our members are struggling to put in an appropriate robust response because they’re second guessing the legislation that’s appropriate and that goes back again to the level of training.”
GRA representative Garda James Morrisroe said the organisation had made recommendations to the Minister for Justice and Garda Commissioner about how officers can be better trained to deal with the issue.
“We don’t get training for that type of protest. The public order unit do, but the front line members who do not receive training for that. So that’s where we’re falling down as well,” he said.
“It just indicates the thing the GRA have been saying which is we are not prepared, not educated and not trained to deal with the challenges of policing in a modern society,” Garda O’connor added.
It comes as the GRA’S deputy general secretary, James Morrisroe, was asked if Ireland was ready for another incident on the scale of the Dublin Riots which happened in November of last year.
He said: “The only way to be ready for that
I suppose if you had the numbers and the resources there.
“I’m not aware of any specific training for the frontline that has occurred since that.
“Public order units will be mobilised and they will be there and I suppose if something like that were to happen again, if they had notice, then public order units from all over the country would be mobilised.
“So as I said, I’m not aware of the frontline units being trained in it so it will be just specialist units that will be brought forward for that if the resources were there, but again, you’d be struggling for resources on something on that scale again, definitely. Unless they had notice or the resources were there on hand, no they wouldn’t be [prepared].’
Garda Morrisroe also pointed to two of the recommendations which recently came out of an Oireachtas committee on justice.
Meanwhile GRA General Secretary Ronan Slevin said the organisation still has trust in the Minister for Justice - despite her turning down their invite to the conference this year.
“The Minister’s decision not to attend the conference was disappointing. But I think she’s missing the link that there are operational matters we have issue with, but in relation to the Minister we have a number of items in relation to pay recruitment, retention of staff, trying to attract members in, keep the ones we have that she has a direct impact on.
“We would like the Minister to be more hands on, more willing to meet to discuss the issues.”
Meanwhile, a Garda who policed the protest outside Minister Roderic O’gorman’s house has said the incident was “sensationalised” on social
media.
Blanchardstown based Detective Garda Mark Ferris, who is the GRA spokesman for the DMR West, said some footage posted online by protestors at the Minister for Children and Integration’s home last Thursday was “edited” and used as “disinformation.”
“What we had was a reactive response to it and I just want to be clear that the videos being sensationalised on social media is not a true and accurate reflection,” he said.
“It’s disinformation because we can clearly see an engagement with police, that daylight was just setting and later on in the clip you can see in daylight placards being placed outside the Minister’s address.”
Det Garda Ferris said he and his colleagues responded to the situation after the placards had been placed - and had they responded earlier, arrests may have been made.
“Obviously we weren’t aware of it at that time. We would obviously react. It’s a fluid situation. We’d react differently if we came upon those protesters.”
He also said that the GRA welcomed recent comments by Taoiseach Simon Harris calling for new legislation to assist gardai.
“We require leadership on this and I welcome An Taoiseach’s comments. Leadership is not about being in charge, it’s about taking care of the people in your charge.”
Video captured at minister’s house was edited
DET GDA MARK FERRIS ON RECENT FOOTAGE