The Garda Commissioner has reissued instructions from 2020 to gardaí on what precisely their duties are at an eviction.
Drew Harris said these were to maintain the peace and prevent crime, and to detect crime if crime does happen.
The instructions were reissued four weeks ago.
Commissioner Harris said evictions should be “preplanned operations” and that gardaí would make sure all was done to minimise the risk to public order and threat or danger to individuals.
He said An Garda Síochána did not want to see circumstances where there was public order or a crime committed.
The commissioner’s comments come after the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors called on him to clarify the role of gardaí in evictions following an increase in notices of termination.
The AGSI said evictions are a societal issue, that also affects gardaí, and a large cohort of its members are in rented accommodation because they cannot afford their own homes.
General Secretary Antoinette Cunningham said they are “at both sides of this”, because as well as being tenants, gardaí have a function to ensure that a breach of the peace does not occur.
“It’s a difficult issue, a very sensitive issue and we try and deal with this as sensitively as we can,” Ms Cunningham said.
On the Tweet of a reworked famine eviction picture by Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin, Commissioner Harris said that the deputy “meant no offence and it is sensible of us not to take offence but it does highlight what a contentious issue this is in society.”
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AGSI announces escalation in dispute over garda rosters
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has announced a significant escalation in its dispute with Commissioner Harris on the issue of rosters.
Sergeants and inspectors are to engage in four more protest marches in May, June, July and August.
The middle-ranking gardaí will march on Dáil Éireann, the Department of Justice and Garda Headquarters, where more than 100 members protested last month.
They say they will police the forthcoming visit by US President Joe Biden but “under protest” and will give no guarantees as regards the policing of any other forthcoming visits by dignitaries to Ireland.
The AGSI also says if the Garda Commissioner does not then agree to what it says are meaningful negotiations on the disputed rosters issue, individual sergeants and inspectors will take part in so-called ‘blue flu’ action, whereby they will withdraw their labour in particular garda departments on particular days.
Delegates at its annual conference mandated the association to take the action this morning.
AGSI General Secretary Antoinette Cunningham said that the conference also agreed that the above actions would be “set aside if meaningful internal negotiations take place on rosters”.
The Garda Commissioner said he was surprised by the decision of the AGSI to escalate its protests.
Drew Harris said he wants both sides to go to the WRC “to find a route through” to agree a roster which he described as a reasonable one.
He said they have “regrettably” been unable to find agreement internally; that they had 64 day-long meetings over a three-year period; and that he now views the internal procedure to be “exhausted”.
The commissioner also said that AGSI had also taken a High Court action which had yet to be determined and that it would be “prudent and respectful” to the High Court proceedings to await the outcome before making announcements on further days of action.
He also said gardaí have a duty as a policing organisation which is laid out in legislation with responsibility to the State and the people of Ireland to protect them and that includes State visits.
“We will fulfil those duties,” he said.
The commissioner would not specify what he intends to do in the event of a ‘blue flu’ but said he would wait and see what happens.
Gender directive withdrawn
Meanwhile, Drew Harris has withdrawn a directive to gardaí on gender identity in the workplace.
AGSI had criticised the directive relating to the rights of people who are transitioning because it had been introduced without consultation or training.
Commissioner Harris had said that gardaí who used the wrong gender when addressing a person may be disciplined.
He withdrew the directive this morning.
Garda role to maintain peace at evictions – Harris
Source: Viral Trends Report
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