Cancellation of Garda overtime ‘early Christmas present for criminals’

The cancellation of Garda overtime is an early “Christmas present for criminals”, the body representing rank and file gardaí has said.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said Garda overtime was a "safety valve" which offered the best value for money in policing.

"From burglaries to crime gangs, from shoplifting to public disorder, the citizens of Dublin were best served because of this safety valve," spokesman John O'Keeffe said.

“The immediate withdrawal of overtime in the capital now creates an open door for the criminal fraternity and prevents the continuation of intensive policing and detection where and when required,” he said.

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Mr O’Keeffe said this was especially the case “when it comes to both the capital’s criminal gangs and the usual spike in public disorder incidents over the festive season”.

Senior officers in charge of policing have been told in some parts of Dublin they can cease burglary response operations and reassign personnel to more immediate duties.

Garda sources said assistant commissioners around the country were informed that their budgets for all policing had been cut by 15 per cent.

Mr O’Keeffe said the GRA is “astonished” at the withdrawal of overtime in the Dublin region.

“Much of the very successful policing work that has occurred in the last year in the Dublin region was made possible because of the availability of overtime.”

He said that unilateral withdrawal of overtime for gardaí in Dublin this Christmas “does no one any favours - except criminals.”

President of the GRA Ciarán O’Neill said he heard of the overtime ban when he received calls yesterday evening from members who had been told to go home because overtime had been cancelled.

He told Newstalk Breakfast that Garda numbers in Ireland are more than 20 per cent lower than they should be.

Mr O’Neill said at present there were 13,500 members of the force in Ireland when there should be 17,000 for the current population.

He was comparing the figures for Ireland and Scotland which has a similarly sized population.

“I’ve always said that we don’t have sufficient numbers to police the country efficiently or effectively and overtime is the cheapest form of policing.”

The total cost of overtime in the Dublin Metropolitan Region for the first six months of 2017 was € 26.39 million, an increase of 43 per cent on the amount spent last year.

“This is like an early Christmas present for criminals,” added Mr O’Neill.

He added in his 23 years in the force he had never seen anything like the current situation.

This was the busiest time of the year for burglaries and Garda checkpoints, he said. There will now be no units to combat crimes because of the overtime ban, he warned.

He denied overtime was being abused by some gardaí, saying it was a stop gap until recruitment picks up.

Mr O’Neill said that the GRA will be speaking with the Garda Commissioner in the coming days and is calling on the Minister for Justice to ensure that, if necessary, more money is included in the Budget for the force.