GARDA COMMISSIONER Martin Callinan has taken the unusual step of calling on the Government to immediately deliver on a longstanding promise to promote dozens of senior Garda officers.
He said even when those promotions occurred there would still be significant gaps at senior management level across the force.
Appearing before the Dáil public accounts committee yesterday, the commissioner said all of the promotions – which were announced last August – needed to be acted on immediately.
“It is extremely important to me as commissioner that I would have all of those positions filled as soon as possible. By that, I mean all of the people who are on promotional lists waiting to be promoted.
“Even with all of those [officers] being accommodated and those promotions filled, there is still a significant gap. I view it as essential that all of the people on the promotion lists be promoted as quickly as possible.”
The commissioner’s words could be seen as unusually frank because senior Garda officers rarely, if ever, publicly suggest resources are insufficient, for fear it would cause tension with the Minister of the day.
The lists he was referring to contain the names of 51 Garda members who were selected last August to be promoted to the ranks of superintendent or chief superintendent. Despite a promise by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter that those on the list would be promoted, there has been no progress to date. There are currently 61 vacancies among senior officer ranks: five assistant commissioners, eight chief superintendents and 48 superintendents.
At middle management level, there will be 170 vacancies at the rank of sergeant and 20 at the rank of inspector when those who have signalled their intention to retire have left the force at the end of this month. There are six regional assistant commissioners’ posts among the 10 assistant commissioners’ positions across the Garda. These regional assistant commissioners are in charge of policing in different geographic regions around the Republic. Of the six, vacancies now arise in four of the posts.
The regional assistant commissioner posts were created to improve communication and management collaboration across the Garda in the aftermath of the Brendan O’Donnell case in 1994. O’Donnell evaded gardaí for a long period and murdered Imelda Riney, her young son Liam and Fr Joe Walsh in Co Clare.
The commissioner said the current gaps among senior ranks had led to a situation where some officers were managing two geographic areas commensurate with their rank rather than one.
“We have very senior [assistant commissioner] gardaí managing two regions, which is proving to be very difficult. As you move down the organisation to the next level, you have a number of chief superintendents managing two divisions.“When you go down to the superintendent rank, there are a number of districts being managed on the double; that has been the situation for some time now.”
He said the Department of Justice was “fully aware” of the situation and was working with the Garda to work through the problems. “I’m satisfied there will be movement in the very near future in trying to address that,” the commissioner said.
“And even then there would be considerable gaps in some areas and there will still be a requirement for some of those officers that I’ve just mentioned to double-up so to speak.”
He said the Department of Justice had given him permission to open a competition for those wishing to be promoted into the ranks of sergeant and inspector. This would happen “very soon”.