Garda chief seeks more money for State visits

GARDA COMMISSIONER Martin Callinan has asked the Government for more money to pay for the extra policing involved in the visits of Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama.

Mr Callinan said he was also prepared to ask for extra money if Government plans to reduce the force to 13,000 serving members compromises the role of the Garda. He said he was prepared like other public servants to find ways of doing more with less, however, and pledged “full support” for the Garda reserve force.

Earlier yesterday, members of the Garda Representative Association called unanimously for the reserve to be abolished at their annual conference in Westport.

A number of speakers at the conference referred to the continued recruitment of unpaid part-time reservists at a time when the recruitment of full-time gardaí has been stopped.

Up to €4 million a year is spent on the training of reservist gardaí, a figure which conference speakers said equated to the training of 100 full-time gardaí.

The part-time reserve force, introduced in 2005, is set to reach its full strength – 10 per cent of the number of full-time gardaí, or 1,400 members – in about 18 months.

Mr Callinan said reservists should be seen as being there to assist their full-time colleagues. “They do a very specific job” and were “not a threat”, he said. Reservists would, he added, be deployed during the Queen’s visit, and help would likely be sought from services such as the Defence Forces and and Civil Defence.

The training of reservists could not be compared to that of “sworn” officers, and their tasks, which might include directing traffic, were very different.

Commenting on the commitment in the programme for government to reduce the numbers in the full-time force to 13,000 from the current level of about 14,000, he said if he found the force was compromised he did not “propose to be found wanting”. If more money was needed he would seek it from the Government, he said.

He thought it would be “unreasonable” to expect the force to pay the exceptional security costs for visits of heads of state out of its existing budget. He refused to confirm estimates the bill may be as high as €25 million.

Garda Representative Association general secretary PJ Stone said the cost of this security operation would be “in the region” of €25 million in terms of personnel, travel, subsistence and overtime.

There was “no doubt” that if additional money was not provided the force was “looking at Armageddon”, he said. The situation contrasted with that of the PSNI, which had been given an extra “capital injection of €350 million” to tackle extremists.

Mr Callinan responded that one of the biggest priorities for the Garda would lie in continuing to undermine so-called dissident republicans.

Activity had been brisk in the last two years and more than 100 people had been arrested and more than 40 were currently charged before the courts.