The public sector hiring freeze is to be temporarily lifted in order to allow for the recruitment of approximately 100 new trainees to An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force. Advertisements were placed in the media last week and information is also available on www.publicjobs.ie This recruitment is necessary in order to keep the numbers of gardaí at what the Minister for Justice and Law Reform (which is his new title as of June 1st 2010), Dermot Ahern, described as “approved levels”. Senior gardaí, along with other senior employees within the public sector, have recently retired, and continue to retire, in significant numbers in order to avoid changes to their pension entitlements which are forthcoming. In 2009, for example, roughly 800 members of An Garda Síochána took early retirement.
This mass exodus from the upper ranks of An Garda Síochána is cause for some concern. While another exception to the current embargo on public sector promotions has been allowed within An Garda Síochána to fill the senior positions vacated, it is still the case that with the retiring senior members of the force goes a wealth of experience and intelligence which could never be clearly expressed or captured within the Pulse information system or directly passed on to more junior members. The worry is that the government’s interest in lowering the public sector pay bill may impact negatively on its efforts to control crime.
And what of those coming into the system? Conor Lally in the Irish Times reported that the incoming recruits will be given full garda powers after a shorter period of time than was previously the case. This change in training methodology is a result of the recommendations included in the Garda Síochána Training and Development Review Group Report of June 2009.
Although other reports into Garda training had been carried out in the past, this Report was the first of its breadth and remit since the inception of An Garda Síochána. The Committee that created the Report included persons with particular academic expertise in education, civil servants from the Departments of Finance and Justice, persons with private industry experience in human resources, and of course senior members of An Garda Síochána. The Group was chaired by Pat McLoughlin, formerly of the Health Service Executive.
Probationer, or trainee, gardaí undertake a 2 year BA in Policing Studies, which in the past was delivered in a 5-phased manner consisting of some time in the Garda College in Templemore, and some time in the Garda Station. Under that structure, probationer gardaí were not given garda powers, or “attested as members of An Garda Síóchána”, until they had completed 58 weeks of training. The new structure of delivering probationer training will see them gain full garda powers after just 30 weeks training. Rather than the previous 5 phases, the programme will from now on be delivered in 3 phases as set out below:
Phase I: 30 weeks at the Garda College in Templemore, followed by 2 weeks annual leave. Following this phase probationers will be ”attested” as members of An Garda Síochana.
Phase II: 63 weeks in an operational setting, with 2 weeks annual leave. The Report recommended that during this phase students should “undergo three stages of supported experiential development in a nominated training station with full police powers.”
Phase III: 2 weeks of exam preparation conducted at station level; 1 week of examinations at regional examination centres; 2 weeks annual leave (which allows time for corrections); 2 weeks in the Garda College, during which probationers will prepare for graduation and undergo some final assessments to ensure uniformity of academic standards.
The Report noted that there are different models of police training in existence throughout other jurisdictions. In the UK and US models, the focus is on practical training following a brief period of basic skills training, while the Continental European approach is more closely tied to degree-level education. The new training regime appears to aim for a compromise position between the two.
There has been little academic research on garda training in this jurisdiction, but perhaps the new training regime will give rise to new research opportunities. It is important sometimes to step back from the academic and legal issues in the criminal justice system in order to consider the personnel involved, how they have gotten there, how they were trained and so on. It should be noted, however, that no matter how good probationer training may be under this new approach, the loss at the top of the structure is still likely to be deeply felt.
Worrying indeed. I know that we in UL, at the time, made a submission to the review but they don’t seem to mention any submissions in the report. Wasn’t exactly consultative. At the very least the granting of garda powers could have been staggered – they could, for instance, have achieved a similar level to members of the reserve at the 30 week point (or a proportionately equal level).
As for the retirement issue I’m in two minds about it. I appreciate the loss of experience point but at the same time not all experience is good. Perhaps this provides an opportunity to introduce a new breed of officers trained in post-Morris reforms and policing that’s embedded in human rights?
Vicky, I think the idea of staggering the provision of garda powers to probationers is a good one. Of course, members of the Reserve receive their powers after approxminately 156 hours training (delivered in 5 separate phases consisting of a mix of lectures, techniques training and on-the-job training). This level of training is another issue for another day!!
The point you raise in relation to the positives of a new breed of human-rights conscious, Morris-conscious gardaí is interesting too. Hopefully that will be the case, though the truth of that remains to be seen to a large extent.
What lovely, gushing concern for your precious ‘senior’ Gardai! How lovely is your admiration for senior positions (a new one?). And how commendable is your desiderata of ‘post-Morris’ Gardai – (is he still alive. then, or what?). And your human-rights Gardai. I hope they all manage to get born – otherwise the human rights will be selective, as usual, for those who managed to reach the big bad world alive, alive-o!
Pity about the ones that won’t make it; they will never become senior Gardai or even human-rightists!
Any way, while you are lamenting the departure of the senior (old-timer) Gardai, and awaiting Morris-dancer types of young fresh-faced save-the-worlders, how in the hell do you suppose your beloved senior golden-oldies ever got to their eminence, ‘intelligence’ and experience, etc., etc. without the benefit of Morris??
How did they manage to get into your good books; after all they were brought up in the big bad Garda world where they were obliged to face the murderers who were intent on wiping out this backward State, its laws and Constitution; when all except the Gardai and Army (Irish) ran from the killers? Who saved the bacon then? Who defended the Constitution? (And who shredded it for gain in the courts? So that scumbags may be free to kill again? A most important human right?
I feel that human rights are anything but human rights nowadays. The killers are rehabilitated by being reduced to politics and the sort of ‘respectability’ that goes with that trade. Their butchered victims’ skulls and bones are being dragged from bogs, mountain-sides, and sandy beaches, in a grisly affront to civilised society – never mind ‘human-rights’ Yet, all that bothers you is the old lads and lassies are leaving and the young guns could be dicey on the human-rights, post-Morris scale!
A fat lot of good your touchy-feely human rights bleating and simpering did for murdered Gardai, soldiers, British Ambassador, Senator Billy Fox, working-class men, women and children in N.I., for Dublin and Monaghan victims, for Omagh victims, and even for children born and unborn, or walking beside dustbins in the UK, when the murderers let loose bomb and bullet!! Even a learned Judge and his wife were denied the basic human right. But what of it – they were not on the criminal side – dare I say the bread-and-butter side?
When I see honest and sincere and valid concern for all human rights, born or unborn; when I see an honest and impartial concern for victim as well as criminal; when I see some concern for the suffering victims of the mental health system; for the dysfunctional HSE, for our Street Children- (dumped in Garda Stations like criminals without human rights, and criminalised because the HSE goes home for tea before dark on Friday and does not come to work until the dirty, disagreeable work of the weekend has receded), for victims of our the dysfunctional financial sector and their associated con-men and women, etc., etc., then I will take you seriously and will acknowledge your bona fides.
I, for one, abhor selective application of human rights to an elite group of trendy ‘victims’ to the exclusion of the generality of suffering people.
I await in hope that, some day, that human rights will be considered the due of all persons who are being denied them.
Stop worrying about young Gardai! Worry about the real threats to this State and its people. Bite the bullet and challenge the real issues that matter.
Otherwise, for goodness’ sake call a halt to the pointless bleating about old Gardai leaving. They were no angels; there are no angels this side of heaven. You just grew to love them as likeable rogues! Try and love the new generation!!
Now, that might spark off another response; you have had one Yvonne – the second one was yourself answering your sole contributor.
I await with bated breath to see if any one else is the slightest bit concerned about these noble human rights? Hope I provoke some interest and debate – even abuse; bring it on, people.
PS I expect that the Editorial Pen will sanitise this epistle to suit the agenda; hope I am wrong!? Wouldn’t bet on it. Ah, well, I’ll be proved right if it does!
I agree whole heartly with Nick! What an educated comment full of substance and truth.
Nick, many thanks for taking the time to comment and indeed, as you suggest, perhaps inspire some debate and interest (though not abuse I hope!).
The sole point that I was trying to get at in relation to senior gardai in this post is that many of them have surely built up a knowledge of the workings of criminals in their respective areas and it is a pity that a significant number of these gardai are retiring in or around the same time and thereby taking their knowledge with them. The same problem I think is also likely to arise in other areas of the public service, such as, for example, senior teachers in primary and secondary schools retiring.
At the same time, the point which Vicky raised is a good one, perhaps the departure of what you generously term “likeable rogues” ought to be welcomed and seen as a way to make room for a new breed of gardai, who might have greater regard for human rights, not just of suspects or offenders, but of victims and others who they come into contact with too.
As I am sure you have seen and will continue to see on the pages of this blog, our contributors deal with a wide range of human rights issues such that it would be unfair to suggest that any of us are elitist or selective in our discussions of human rights.
Back again.
I forgot to mention last time that the Minister for Justice (another Ahern, I admit) stated in public that the numbers jumping the (sinking) ship (including your favourites, the senior intelligent, experienced Gardai) were balanced by the numbers entering the Garda College!!
So, a trainee without any police powers ( and I presume selectively-bred to order by academics ( a la Mr. A.H. of the small ‘tache?) – to pick up on your repeated term ‘new breed of Gardai’) is the full equal to one of your favourites at the top of the pile with maybe 40 years police service and shoving on for 60 years of age!
Now, if the Minister and his accomplices in Government hand-pick the senior Gardai for high promotion, and yet values them the same as the trainee at the College-gate, how can you feel that the old-timers are a loss at all?
Go on convince me that the Minister is an idiot!! Or that you are not?
I accept that a Minister and his accomplices in Government hand-picks for promotion senior Gardai who would not be over-likely to snap at his or other Fianna Fail heels- or ‘feel the collar’ of any Fianna Fail charvet shirt. Yet he values their ‘intelligence’ and ‘experience’ as policemen-women the same as the first-day trainee! Why not promote the trainee to Assistant Commissioner on the first day in college? After all, it’s just a numbers game – one trainee in the gate one Commissioner out the gate equals no change in Garda numbers. Basic maths.
Notwithstanding that, ‘a safe-hands syndrome’ is a pre-requisite for high-office, (yes, even in the legal profession, to wit, Attorneys General, Spin-Doctors. etc, and legal advisors of the type that advised a Minister to the effect that the human rights of victims (of the blood-poisoning gang) usually died with them – and money would be saved as a result. Sit it out, man; hang tough at the death-bedside!
Human Rights should not be selectively applied; should not be a plank for self-promotion; should not be the preserve of any select group; should not be the right of the living over the right of the unborn; should not be debased and degraded. What value have human rights for the daily victims of the HSE; for the abused, and for the aborted? Some valuable racehorses have much greater ‘human’ rights that the humans themselves.
When euthanasia is promoted, as it shortly will be, most likely by academics of a certain profession who seem to haunt the current affairs programmes until they head for the Dail or Seanad, where will human rights fit in? Or are human rights for all bar the unborn young and the undead elderly?
With the way the HSE and their Government mistress are behaving, euthanasia will be promoted as a ‘human right’ of the lower castes – as the lesser of the many evils to be encountered in trying to stay alive. As the high-flying Ministress sang: ‘Unfortunately, people are living much longer nowadays!’
What a broth of a girl! A real man’s woman!
P.S. what is a former HSE man doing trying to help rectify problems with Garda training? Could we sent a former Garda to sort out the HSE? Or would he or she need full police powers to deal with that unholy mess? (Better not send one of the ‘new breed’ though.