GROUPS REPRESENTING members of the Garda and Defence Forces have said the ban on the recruitment and promotion of gardaí and soldiers will have a detrimental impact on policing and the military at home and overseas.
The measures are being introduced as part of previously announced wider Government plans to control numbers across the public sector. About 250 members of the Garda and 200 soldiers who were about to be promoted will lose out. Under the new plans nobody can be promoted within the Garda or Defence Forces unless it is approved by the Minister for Finance.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA), which represents around 12,000 rank and file members, said the recruitment ban will mean the number of gardaí in the force will now fall, with frontline policing suffering as a result.
GRA president Michael O’Boyce said 400 gardaí were due to retire this year, with no plans to recruit any replacements.
“Certain ranks in An Garda Síochána exercise statutory powers of detention of prisoners; if vacancies aren’t filled, this will have an impact on the investigation of crime,” Mr O’Boyce said.
“For those who were due to be promoted this year, it will inevitably sap their morale, that they will now not be promoted.”
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said it was concerned that the Garda Commissioner’s authority to appoint and promote his own members had been transferred to the Minister for Finance “at the stroke of a pen”.
The organisation representing soldiers, sailors and air crew, PDforra, expressed its surprise and disappointment.
It suggested the progress of the last decade in building the Defence Forces into a “modern efficient organisation” might now be lost.
PDforra general secretary Gerry Rooney said recruitment and promotions were needed to fill key vacancies at home and on overseas missions as they arose.
“A ban on recruitment and promotion over an extended period can have very serious repercussions for the overall effectiveness of the Defence Forces – and it should not be applied at this critical time in the organisation’s development”. The recruitment ban would “block the flow of young blood” into the Defence Forces and stagnate the forces. The ban on promotions would also impact on morale.
It has also emerged that the deployment overseas of members of the Reserve Defence Forces has been postponed indefinitely because of the worsening recession.The first 12-strong group of reservists were already in training for a planned deployment to Kosovo later this year.
Reservists with specialist skills badly needed by the Defence Forces, such as heavy vehicle mechanics and medics, were to be used on overseas missions.
Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea said in a statement to The Irish Times that he was disappointed “at the necessity to postpone overseas service” for reservists. He thanked the group who had volunteered for the Kosovo mission, which was to be the first time ever reservists had served overseas.