Madam – Dermot Fagan (March 10th) hits the nail on the head. Yes, it is a bizarre situation that gardaí use their own personal mobile and landline phones, laptops, GPS systems, etc, in the course of their professional duties. They do so every day of the week because if they did not, the service to the public would grind to a halt.
Gardaí use their phones because the elderly analogue Garda national radio system – which is still in use over most of the country – is totally inadequate and is subject to numerous “blackspots” and frequent breakdowns.
There are a relatively few “official” mobile phones on issue. They use their own laptops because they do not have access to standalone computers on which to prepare their files and only one-third of the 700 Garda stations are connected to the PULSE system. They use any GPS equipment they have because the organisation simply does not supply it. Even equipment to view CCTV discs in crime investigations is not supplied.
In addition, it is only now that gardaí of the rank of sergeant are being issued with e-mail addresses, and still many do not have them.
It is intensely frustrating to us, as a representative association, to find that people like Mr Fagan appear to have been ignorant of these facts. We have drawn these serious shortcomings to public attention for many, many years through press statements and addresses at our annual conference.
When gardaí cease to use their personal equipment later this month the consequences for the service to the public will be serious. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I am amazed by the unselfishness, on behalf of her fellow nursing colleagues, displayed by Florence Horsman Hogan (March 10th), in inferring that they, in common with other public service workers, should be grateful to have jobs. To what level should their pay drop before this “gratitude” runs out? It is obvious that, though she professes to acknowledge their right to protest, she does not see the the unfairness and iniquity inherent in burdening just the public service, an easy target, with all the financial problems of the State.
Does she not realise that the public service had nothing to do with the creation of the present mess in which the country finds itself? Does she not find it iniquitous that those who caused the problems are being rewarded with our, taxpayers, money?
It might be more acceptable had the Government increased the level of general taxation, and, perhaps, forgone some of the multiple, and rarely earned pensions and perks they have bestowed upon themselves. What other vehicle, more “morally” acceptable to her conscience, does Ms Horsman Hogan advocate, other than industrial action? – Yours, etc,