Aodhán Ó Ríordáin
Question:7. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Justice what measures have been put in place to address the unprecedented number of members resigning from An Garda Síochána. [17751/24]
View answerTuesday, 23 April 2024
Questions (7)
Oral answers (7 contributions)
I have won the oral questions lottery this week. This question relates to the issue of Garda resignations, which I have raised a number of times. There were 147 resignations from An Garda Síochána last year, which was unprecedented. The Minister decided not to attend the Garda Representative Association, GRA, conference. That was an unsurprising move in the absence of an invitation to the Garda Commissioner. That being said, low morale and other issues within An Garda Síochána would have been raised with her there. I ask her to speak to the number of resignations from the force and what she is doing to address the matter.
I am absolutely committed to working with all members of An Garda Síochána at all ranks and levels to address the issues of concern to them. That will continue, irrespective of any meetings this week or otherwise. I have made that very clear to the representative organisations. I am committed to working with the Garda Commissioner as well to make sure gardaí have the resources they need to do their extremely important work of keeping people safe.
I will now set out the facts in relation to resignations. While we have seen an increase in the number of gardaí resigning, and I do not want to see that increase continuing, the figures are still low, objectively, in comparison with other police organisations. The rate of resignations is running at around 1%. There has been an increase of 0.3% since 2022. In saying that, I am not dismissing the fact that there has been an increase. In comparison with other policing organisations and given the fact that we are at full employment, it is, however, a relatively low number, albeit one we want to see decrease.
People choose to change careers for a wide variety of reasons. Younger people, in particular, are less likely to spend 30 or 40 years in the same job. We are probably all in that situation and every industry is seeing movement in a way that did not happen in times past. An Garda Síochána is no different in that regard. Gardaí nowadays are often highly educated before entering Templemore, with recruits holding undergraduate degrees or higher. They then graduate with a bachelor’s degree in applied policing on completion of their Garda training and often continue to add to these qualifications. They are highly trusted and highly employable individuals by reason of their experience and the skills and judgment they develop as members of An Garda Síochána. It is often the case that they leave to go to other parts of the public service, which is welcome for the institutions or agencies in question but we obviously want to do what we can to keep them in the force.
One of the most important issues is making sure we have as many members of An Garda Síochána as possible. One issue that gardaí raise with me as regards the pressure they are under is their feeling that there are not enough of them to do the work they have to do. That is why the main focus and priority need to be on making sure that overall Garda numbers are increasing. That in itself will help gardaí in the work they are doing and relieve some of the pressure they feel they are under at the moment.
What gardaí are telling me is that it is not the job it used to be and that it is harder to do the job. There are people doing it now who want to leave and clearly the statistics back up what I am saying. There are also people who, in previous generations, would have wanted to enter the profession but do not want to do so now. We can see that in the difficulties we have had with recruitment. I understand the Garda Commissioner suggested 18,000 gardaí are needed to effectively police the State because of the population increase, although I am open to correction on that.
I have suggested previously, including to the Minister of Education, that the Government should consider a Dublin allowance for certain public sector workers in the city and county who are particularly hurt by the cost-of-living issues that are a feature of Dublin. It would be modelled on the London allowance which has been in place for 100 years. Housing and the cost of accommodation are among the reasons we cannot get teachers and gardaí in Dublin. This Minister for Justice might consider that. The Minister for Education has said she is considering it.
It is important to note that policing is a career that people are choosing. Across the recruitment campaigns this year and last year, we had 11,500 people apply to join An Garda Síochána. At a time of full employment, that is a significant number of people who still want to join. Obviously, that does not negate the fact that people are leaving on the other side. As well as making sure that we have more members to alleviate some of the pressures and stress that people are under, I have been engaging with the Garda Commissioner and the representative organisations to see if there are other measures we could take to support people in staying on.
That is the engagement I am having currently with the Minister for public expenditure and reform. It has resulted in the increase in retirement age. We have increased the age of entry. There are separate measures that I hope we will be able to progress shortly to address some of the issues gardaí have raised. We are investing significant funding, with an increase of 25% in the last three years alone, again to try to make sure that while the job has changed, which I absolutely accept, it has changed in a good way. For example, last week I met members of the roads policing unit in Cork. They were able to show me the hand-held device they have which enables them to deal with a person on the roadside without ever having to go back to their car, let alone their station. The changes are not all bad. Some are actually positive and enable gardaí to do their job in a really effective way.
We did have a motion of no confidence in the Garda Commissioner, which I did not think was a good move by the GRA but it happened. We did have a threat of work to rule, effectively, for the month of October, which did not happen but overhung the whole month until it was resolved. The Garda Commissioner has not been invited to the GRA conference and the Minister has already decided not to attend. These issues of morale are real and the statistics I gave the Minister on resignations are real.
The Minister did not answer my question about the Dublin allowance. I am interested to hear what she has to say about that. Has her Department investigated what has happened in London since 1920 and how the changes have been effective in ensuring that essential public sector workers such as nurses, teachers and police officers have stayed within that employment in the UK context? If we could encourage something similar here, it would address some of the issues we have in terms of the cost of living and accommodation costs.
There is no doubt in my mind that while the numbers are low statistically, they have increased. I know the Minister accepts and understands that. We have an issue with morale. It is very clear that we have an issue in respect of many of our men and women in uniform across all branches of the Defence Forces, including An Garda Síochána. It is undoubtedly going to be an ongoing challenge. The recruitment of more personnel is part of the solution but we also have an issue when it comes to the communication between rank-and-file gardaí and the hierarchy within An Garda Síochána. That is leading to these issues. It is not only the economic issues that members are feeling because of the education they have, which, as the Minister rightly pointed out, is extremely high. They are in great demand, particularly when the economy is so buoyant. There has to be a recognition within An Garda Síochána, particularly within the Commissioner's office, as regards this communication methodology that he and others are perhaps using. There needs to be a conversation about that because we are seeing more individuals resigning than we should.
On a Dublin allowance, I do not think that could be applied to gardaí on their own. Deputy Ó Ríordáin reflected that it would have to apply across the board. It is something that we have looked at, which is not to say there are not challenges with it. How do we decide who gets it? If somebody is working in Dublin but living in the commuter area, do we put a parameter around that? What would the allowance be? If prices increase in other counties, how would that then apply? Should it apply only to gardaí, nurses and teachers? There is a challenge in that I could not decide who should get it beyond gardaí and also regarding what the parameters would be and how we would set them. There are a number of challenges. That is not to say that the matter has not been looked at but it is not straightforward. The allowance would have to apply across a number of different professions and there is a challenge in identifying them.
There are other ways in which we can try to address some of the challenges gardaí face. It is about financial measures, structures, engagement and making sure that where issues arise, they can be communicated. I cannot speak on behalf of management but as regards rank-and-file gardaí working with their seniors, the representative organisations and the Garda Commissioner, those lines of communication need to be kept open at all times, which I know they are. For my part, it is my number one objective to make sure gardaí at every single level have exactly what they need, not just to do their job but to feel safe and happy in the work they do.