‘Garda morale is on the floor’ – says AGSI as it urges the Government, for Help.

The General Secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has called on the Government to examine and change the model of policing in Ireland as a matter of urgency.

Antoinette Cunningham said the current model does not create a “high visibility” on our streets and as a result, members of An Garda Síochána are “chained to computers carrying out bureaucratic systems”.

Speaking today following the serious assault of an American tourist on Talbot Street on Wednesday night, Ms Cunningham said garda morale is “on the floor”.

“The Assistant Commissioner of the DMR has said there are enough resources for Dublin city centre so we have to accept that,” she told RTÉ’s This Week programme.

“We also are of course aware of the hundreds of colleagues that are working in the city every day trying to keep people safe.

“But I think we need to look at the model of policing that’s currently in place. This is a model of policing adopted in 2018 by the Irish Government who are fully aware that this model is not creating a strong, visible police presence.

“It doesn’t have a strong community-based policing approach and it is more a reactive style type of model than prevention of crime in the first place.

“I would say government urgently need to review the model that they have approved for policing in Ireland.

“I think people right across Ireland would agree that there isn’t a strong, visible presence of gardaí in communities anymore.”

Justice Minister Helen McEntee visited Store Street Garda Station on Friday and condemned the “vicious, unprovoked attack”.

The station is just yards from where a 57-year-old American tourist was assaulted on Wednesday night, leaving him with serious head and eye injuries.

Ms Cunningham said she was “amazed” by some of the Minister’s comments in the Dáil and said as of the end of May, 59 gardaí have resigned from the force.

“We haven’t achieved our recruitment targets in the last while and I was somewhat amazed when I heard the comments of the Minister for Justice in the Dáil this week when she said garda morale is not on the floor,” she said.

“I have to say that’s a totally incorrect statement from the Minister for Justice. Garda morale is on the floor, there have been problems in An Garda Síochána with morale for some time.

“We worked an emergency Covid roster since 2020, it’s only recently that the Garda Commissioner has said that we will go back now to the pre-Covid roster and that should help with certainty and predictability of working life.

“We’ve had a restriction on our annual leave for three years where people are not allowed to take annual leave when they want or when they need to, meaning there are hundreds of days of annual leave accumulated right across the organisation.

“And of course, we’re suffering from vast over regulation with further plans by the Minister to introduce the policing, security and community safety bill, which contains in our view, unconstitutional laws and investigations that’ll be carried out against gardaí.”

Ms Cunningham said the association is open to explore any avenue that would encourage people to join the force, such as scrapping the maximum age of 35 for recruitment.

“Last year we saw the highest number of resignations ever from the force at 108, so far this year, at the end of May 59 people had resigned from the organisation,” she said.

“It’s disturbing to us when we hear people trying to minimise that number, people never resigned from An Garda Síochána one time and I think it’s something which should be addressed.”