The threat of ‘blue flu’ grows over roster row ‘meltdown’
Appetite for industrial action among rank-and-f ile off icers
THERE is now ‘a strong appetite’ among gardai for industrial action, with members warning of a ‘blue flu’ that could cripple policing services across the country, sources have told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Tentative attempts to introduce the controversial new Garda roster ended in chaos this week amid warnings of a policing ‘meltdown’ in the wake of the unprecedented almost 99% vote of no confidence in Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.
Anger among gardaí is being exacerbated by moves to wind down community policing and drug units in Limerick and Cavan in order to meet the requirements of the new Garda roster.
The MoS has learned an attempt to enforce the new roster in one Garda district this week
‘Openly joking about who’s next to resign’
resulted in three gardaí going out sick and a fourth officer being arrested.
Sources said the prospect of strike action – which was narrowly averted in 2016 – is now being openly discussed, with morale in the force said to be at an all-time low.
Other options up for discussion at the Garda Representative Association (GRA) special delegate conference in Kilkenny on September 27 will include ‘smaller stuff’ such as work to rule, a refusal to do overtime, and a refusal by gardaí to use their own personal mobile phones.
A source told the MoS: ‘It is mayhem out there. Today [last Friday] was the cut-off when people have to be told what unit they are going to. People are so angry and they’re ringing their GRA representatives and lodging dispute cases.
‘The current crop are sick of it all. There is a certain militancy in rankand-file that is not understood by senior management.’
In one Garda district this anger culminated in four officers calling in sick after attempts to create a fifth garda frontline policing unit required under the new roster ended in chaos.
One garda who is permanently attached to the local district court and three plain clothes gardaí were told they would be going back to a regular unit, when the prepandemic roster is reintroduced on November 6.
The four gardai received a phone call from their superintendent on Sunday to say they would be moving to the fifth unit.
One of these gardaí immediately called in sick. A second was arrested in the early hours of the following morning after he crashed his car while allegedly drunk. Sources said a third garda ‘threw his badge’ on his superintendent’s table the next day and walked out ‘without saying a word’.
A fourth garda who has connections to one of the above gardaí has also since gone out sick.
An informed source told the MoS: ‘The chaos this week shows the impact on the ground of this decision. The member who threw his badge at super has gone sick now. He hasn’t resigned, but one would imagine his days in the station are numbered.’
Another source warned the ‘meltdown’ in the Garda district reflects the turmoil among officers.
‘A lot of superintendents are putting the decision on who is to go to the fifth unit back on Human Resource Management in their division because of the potential fallout
it will cause,’ they said.
‘Guards are openly joking about who’s next to resign in the district. We’ve had two here in the last month, one of who was a huge surprise to everyone.’
In Limerick, the imminent introduction of the fifth unit has led to the decimation of its heralded community policing unit.
The city’s drugs unit is also being ‘wound down’ with detective aids having been sent back to uniform frontline policing.
A source said: ‘The fifth unit in Limerick is sorted but at the cost of the community policing unit, which is now gone.
‘We are going backwards. The community policing unit was beefed up in Limerick arising out of the Fitzgerald report in 2007 at the time of the feuds in the city.
‘The regeneration community policing was the only show in town back then, but as of November 6 it will be gone.’
A much-heralded programme in which community gardaí carried out workshops in primary and secondary schools around Limerick is also facing the chop.
In Bailieborough, Co Cavan, the community policing and drugs units are also being wound down after
members were moved around to create the fifth unit.
There are also reports countrywide of an ‘unprecedented’ number of gardaí currently on sick leave.
A source said that, although Commissioner Harris is ‘right to a degree’ when he says the current roster isn’t working, he added: ‘We
don’t have the numbers to change to anything else yet.’
As the crisis engulfing the force deepens, frontline Garda representatives will meet with Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Commissioner Harris next week following the overwhelming vote of no confidence in the country’s
most senior garda.
Just over 9,000 gardaí, or 98.7% of members who voted, said they have no confidence in the Commissioner. Just 116 said they had confidence in Mr Harris.
Commissioner Harris described the landslide vote as a ‘kick in the teeth’, but he insists he will not
resign or climb down on his demands to introduce the new roster.
Minister McEntee has also come in for criticism over her failure to engage with the GRA. However, Government sources insist that Ms McEntee came back from maternity leave keen to meet with frontline Garda representatives but could not do so while the no confidence ballot was taking place.
Ms McEntee has asked to meet the leadership of the GRA at her offices in the Department of Justice on Wednesday. Mr Harris requested a meeting with the GRA on Thursday, which it’s understood will take place at Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park.
Responding to the vote of no confidence in his leadership, Commissioner Harris said this week: ‘I recognise that they are not happy. I am very familiar with all the issues that they have raised. A huge amount of work has been undertaken and is ongoing in respect of
the issues that they have raised.
‘But I would say to them and to the other associations that we are always open to conversation and negotiation. We want to get to a new roster, and we also want to resolve the other issues.’
Meanwhile, discontent among rank-and-file officers has spread to the middle ranks of the force.
Sources said there was ‘annoyance’ among members of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) after it issued a statement in the wake of the GRA vote result in which it said the ‘matter of confidence’ in the Commissioner has ‘not been an issue’.
After the statement was released, an AGSI branch in the southwest wrote to the general secretary Antoinette Cunningham expressing ‘disappointment, dismay and anger’ among its members.
Another AGSI source also said there are a lot of ‘disgruntled’ members questioning the motivation of the statement.
The deepening policing crisis is also causing unease within the Government.
Fianna Fáil deputy Cathal Crowe became the first coalition TD to come out against the Commissioner, posting a video on social media in which he urged the Garda chief to ‘urgently review’ returning to the pre-pandemic roster.
Reflecting officers’ fears, the Clare TD said ‘many community policing units will be dismantled entirely’ and smaller stations will
‘cease having gardaí rostered to them so to all intents and purposes’.
He added: ‘It will bolster the Garda presence in towns and cities and you will see the outpost stations, the rural ones like my own local one here, you will see them short on staff and in many instances not open at all. This is totally unworkable.’
Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesman, Jim O’Callaghan, did not respond to requests for comment.
In a statement released this weekend, a Garda spokesman insisted Commissioner Harris has the support of his senior leadership team, the Association of Chief Superintendents, the AGSI, the Government and the Policing Authority. He also said the level of resignations in the force is ‘far below’ that experienced in the UK and that welfare of staff is of ‘paramount importance’ to Garda leadership.
The spokesman added An Garda Síochána is ‘aware of a significant amount of misinformation, disinformation and conflation of unconnected issues’ in relation to the roster and ‘does not comment on such speculation and rumour’.
In response to queries from the MoS, a spokesman for Minister McEntee said: ‘The Minister has said that differences over rosters can only be resolved by talking and negotiating.
‘The Minister believes negotiations, such as by using internal Garda mechanisms or the industrial relations mechanisms of the State which have a proven record of resolving the most difficult disputes, are the only way to reach a solution.’
The spokesman also said the Minister will meet with members of the AGSI this week.
‘You will see the outpost stations short staffed’