The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said some of their members feel “fatigued” by connotations associating them with corruption and drug abuse.
Newstalk reports that Vice-President of the GRA Brendan O’Connor has pushed back against the idea that corruption is an “endemic problem” among rank-and-file Gardaí.
Speaking to Newstalk, O’Connor said the recent announcement by headquarters that prospective and current Gardaí could be drug tested by a new Garda Anti-Corruption Unit (GACU), and that complaints of alleged drug abuse and gang-infiltration into the force had already been received, was “slightly inappropriate”.
“Corruption is something that may occur in a minor number of cases but certainly the narrative seems to be from the Garda Inspectorate and Garda management … there is a lot of commentary, a lot of publicity about this anti-corruption unit that is being rolled out,” he told The Hard Shoulder.
“Some of our members feel a bit of fatigue that there are these stories coming out on an almost weekly basis that they feel are associating them with it.
“It isn’t an endemic problem. It is about preventing it and putting systems in place to prevent corruption taking place – so just our members feel there is a bit of overkill that is all.
“Our members are fatigued now with the number of news articles, stories and reports issued all with connotations associating them with this word ‘corruption.
“There is a bit of overkill on it and we just feel it was slightly inappropriate, the manner in which it was announced.
“There is a bit of a sensationalist nature to that so certainly, we would take issue with some aspects of that.”
The GRA had been under the impression that only 5 per cent of the force would be subject to random drug-testing, but yesterday’s announcement of the new regime by Chief Superintendent Johanna O’Leary means any garda suspected of drug abuse could also be tested.
“We are kind of talking blind here,” O’Connor said.
“That is exactly the issue we have is that it was announced yesterday as a fait accompli but there is really very little detail in what was announced and we haven’t seen the procedural document as to how it would operate so that is, in a sense, what people are asking questions about.”