Garda Commissioner asks Government for more senior officers

The Garda Commissioner has written to the Government urgently requesting the appointment of more senior officers.

In the letter, Nóirín O’Sullivan says the level of policing and security the Garda could provide to the State was at “profound risk”.

The move will put the Government under significant pressure, but will be welcomed by members of the Garda, which has been hit by cut-backs for almost a decade.

The Government has repeatedly said all the resources the Garda needs would be made available to it, though Ms O’Sullivan has now effectively directly contradicted that statement.

She has also urged the Policing Authority to support the Garda's efforts to secure more supervisory and management appointments as the force bids to reform following the shortcomings highlighted in the O'Higgins Commission report.

Ms O’Sullivan revealed her request to Government for more resources, which is unprecedented, when she appeared before a public session of the Policing Authority in Dublin on Thursday.

Traditionally, those who lead the force have been reluctant to state publicly that any shortage of resources is undermining policing, for fear of clashing with Government, especially the Minister for Justice, and giving the Opposition a stick with which to beat the Government.

However, in frank remarks that will be welcomed by under-pressure Garda members, Ms O’Sullivan said there were “profound risks”to the “continued effective delivery of policing and security services from the current leadership gaps” in the Garda.

She pointed out, for example, while the ranks order of the Garda stated there should be 390 Inspectors across the force, there were currently 240. “I wrote to the secretary general of the Department of Justice to request the immediate appointment by Government of the remaining two assistant commissioners, 18 chief superintendents, and 26 superintendents selected from recent competitions,” she told members of the authority at Thursday’s meeting.

“These are critical vacancies to ensure the appropriate leadership capacity of the organisation and ensure robust governance, management and accountability structures needed to address issues raised by the O’Higgins Report and the 43 other recent reports into the Garda.”

She added that a “cohesive and adequately resourced management structure” was needed to manage daily police work and also undertake what she termed “the biggest reform programme in the 94-year history” of the Garda.

Chair of the Policing Authority, Josephine Feehily, told Ms O’Sullivan while she supported the Garda’s request for additional resources and that her point was “extremely well made”, the level of appointments sought “seemed on the high side”.

She also said when it came to reforming and managing the Garda “supervision leaderships is only part of the discussion” and the Garda also needed better procedures.