Minister for Justice Alan Shatter today said there was “no reality or possibility” that An Garda Síochána would be forced to cut staff numbers by "1,000 to 1,500" due to reduced budgets this year.
Mr Shatter was reacting to media reports in recent days that suggested the extent of cuts in the 2013 budget for the force was such that senior officers were now planning to reduce numbers by between 1,000 and 1,500 this year.
It is anticipated that 400 gardaí will retire in 2013, bringing numbers down to around 13,000, a target that should have been met by the end of 2012 under the terms of the State's bailout.
However, recent reports suggested senior officers believed the budget had been cut to such an extent, that up to 1,000 more members would need to be removed from the payroll this year, possibly by using career breaks.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio, Mr Shatter denied Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and has senior colleagues had been “ambushed” by the reduction in their 2013 budget, insisting the cut in Garda numbers speculated upon was not “reality”.
He also said the reduction in payroll was €26 million in the current year and not €35 million. He said it has been known for more than two years that the funding available to the Department of Justice for this year would be €62 million lower than last year. He pointed out that the budget for 2012 was over €100 million lower than that seen in 2011.
Mr Shatter added that a number of measures were being examined to deal with this year’s budget reduction, including controlling overtime and allowances and using greater efficiencies when gardaí appeared in court to give evidence, a practice traditionally funded by using overtime.
“I’ve every confidence in the Garda Commissioner and the Garda to fulfil their duties. There’s no reason for people to be alarmed.”
He said recruitment to the force, which has been stopped under the public sector recruitment moratorium, would be examined by the end of this year or early next year. The Minister said he would discuss the matter with his Cabinet colleagues at that time.
Mr Shatter added that Mr Callinan and the wider force were doing an “extraordinary job”, particularly in tackling issues such as increased activity by dissident republicans, gangs involved in drug dealing and growing cannabis crops and those engaged in burglaries.
He was also critical of some groups representing Garda members who had expressed their view that morale in the force was very low as a result of constant cost cutting measures. "There is not a low morale in the Garda force. The vast number of members I meet…. have a very high morale. The members of the force should be enormously proud of their achievements. The gardaí deserve the applause of the general public."
The Minister said the record of the Garda was “precisely the reason” he had recently extended the term of office of Mr Callinan by two years.
He also pointed out that while 1,200 members of the force had 30 years served and so could retire at any time on full pension, between 350 and 400 of these were expected to retire this year. The majority of those entitled to retire were staying on because they enjoyed their jobs.
Meanwhile the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has called on cuts to be reversed.
AGSI general secretary John Redmond was "absolutely dismayed" that the Government would reduce the budget to "effectively mean an 11.11 per cent loss of the Garda organisation".
The 25 serious crime gangs in the State "must be absolutely delighted" with the "shortsighted" development, he said.
"If it was a case that the Garda Commissioner was agreeing with the Minister that this was a good way to go we might have accepted it," Mr Redmond said.
It was "very clear" that Mr Shatter was "imposing his will" on the Garda Commissioner, he said.
Mr Redmond said the support that the Garda has relied on from the community would "diminish very quickly" when people get fed up of the "patchwork policing" which may result from a denigration of numbers.
The Garda Representative Assocation (GRA) said it will ask the Garda Commissioner if he had "resources to effectively police" the State and if he had "sufficient funds to pay gardaí".
Should budget cuts reduce the number of gardai further "public safety has already been compromised", it said in a statement today.
"We are gravely concerned that our members have already been endangered," the association said.
GRA president John Parker said that payroll cuts were the "extra straw that breaks the camel’s back" where there "has been no bottom of the barrel to scrape".
Mr Parker said if the force was downsized to meet the Budget cuts it would mean the roster providing manpower at peak times was "in danger of collapsing".
A special meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice to clarify cuts to Garda numbers has been called for my Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins TD.
He expressed alarm at reports that numbers in the force could reduce by 1,400 this year.
While Mr Callinan had last year stressed the need to maintain the force at a minimum of 13,000, Mr Shatter "still went ahead and slashed the garda payroll", he said in a statement.
"The political decisions made by Alan Shatter will bring the garda force a decade back in time and put communities across the country directly at risk," Mr Collins added.
There were just over 13,400 members in the force at the end of December 2012, the Department of Justice said in a statement. It said the "average number" of retirements in recent years had been 400.
Last November Mr Callinan said he would not like to see levels drop very much below 13,000.
